He heals the brokenhearted and binds
up their wounds
Psalm
147:2
When doubts filled my mind, your
comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer
Psalm
94:19
I was 21 years old when I met my now ex-husband. Our relationship was new, fun, and exciting. You know, the typical relationship. Being in a military relationship; however, poses an entire new meaning to relationship and sacrifice which I soon realized. We met my last year of college, he was a 2LT in the U.S. Army. After his first deployment, he proceeded to do Captain's Career Course in Missouri, where we ended up living for 6 months and then transitioned up to Joint Base Lewis McChord in Washington state. Let me tell you, Washington is absolutely stunning. The rain is worth every minute of sunshine in the summer time. You honestly just can't beat it and Mt. Rainier is NEVER given justice through pictures. In the 5 years I lived there, looking at the mountain was like seeing it for the first time each day, breathtaking. A month after we relocated to JBLM, he was sent back downrange for yet another deployment. By the end of that deployment it was a total of 25 months apart, I was starting to get the hang of this deployment stuff, but it never really got easier. We got engaged in 2010 while he was home on leave from the deployment. Getting engaged and having to say goodbye again was not exactly what I "dreamed of," but I was ecstatic. That next year in 2011 we were married in Puyallup WA. We knew things were going to change in his job, but we weren't exactly the direction it was going to take or the impact it was going to have on our marriage. He was transitioned to a 2-2 Stryker brigade on North Fort with orders to deploy a third time. This time, the deployment was different, he was different, and it was by no means easy or hard, it was absolutely horrific. While he was deployed, he met a female soldier from his unit and from what I can even come close to understanding is that they had an affair; however, when I got the dreadful phone call from my ex husband he said nothing of the sort. So then in 2012, just over a year after we were married, he told me he was leaving me over SKYPE and filed for divorce. Scratch that, he e-filed (like you do your taxes) online and had the papers delivered to me while he was still downrange with his new interest. Because he was still deployed, I was at his mercy. I couldn't call and he did not want any contact with me. I got a few emails here and there telling me how horrible of a wife I had been. Other than that, the man I married not even 2 years prior had shut me out completely, he had "abandoned" me. For two months, I sat in our home, alone, praying that he would return to me. I fasted, only carrying my bible with me to my student clinicals instead of a lunch pail. I cried until I had nothing left to cry, I lost 25 lbs. in two months (I couldn't eat if I had to), and I saw my life ending right before my eyes. I was failing, I had failed. He didn't want to see me at the redeployment ceremony and he sent his brother and sister-in-law to get his clothes and truck. I only saw him on two occasions once he returned. Other than that it was all in the court room. The Holy Spirit put an instinct in my gut about the female soldier. I knew right away, I just knew it...A month and a half after our divorce was finalized, they got married. He never told me the truth, was willing to talk, or was interested in going to counseling so there was only one thing left for me to do...SURRENDER TO THE LORD.
...but the Lord stood with me and
strengthened me...
2 Timothy 4:17
This was THE day my life was changed forever. It was the day I really began a relationship with my one true love, my Heavenly Father. His love never fails. My Hope is in HIM.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. and this is not your own doing; it is the gift from God.
Ephesians 2:8
Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act
Psalm 37:7
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