{Anniversary Series} Part 4: Together Again

During deployment we had a short breakup. No relationship is perfect and we weren't/aren't perfect.

On his end he wanted to make sure he was ready to get married. Since we had been talking about it and planning it from the beginning. Which was pretty mature of him, I guess. But it was pretty rough for me. Luckily, it didn't last very long. It was probably about 2-3 months. I still remember the moment we got back together. I was getting my hair done at the salon and he called. When he called during deployment I answered no matter where I was or what I was doing. I always wanted to be available for him. After all he was fighting a war in another country. The least I could do was give him that small distraction every once in awhile. He asked me if I would be his girlfriend again and I had never been so excited!

A month later {Feb 2006} it was time for him to come back and he had arranged it for me to drive to Colorado with his family. So we could be there for his welcome home ceremony. It was a long drive with a lot of people that I didn't really know. His family is pretty easy going so we had a lot of laughs. 

When the day came for us to go down to the Army base to wait I was so anxious and nervous. We hadn't had much time actually together, in person. It was pretty much an online courtship. I wasn't sure how to act especially since we just got back together too. We sat there in the bleachers with all the other families with their signs and hand-made posters that read "welcome home" the anticipation was killing me!

They finally opened the doors and the soldiers marched in. Words cannot describe the emotions in that auditorium. You could hear all the sighs of relief. Deployment was finally over, our loved ones were home again safe and sound. I don't even remember the things that were said I was just trying to find Evan in the sea of soldiers that took up half of the room. I scanned and scanned and before I knew it they were released and it was utter chaos. He had found me first because I saw him running toward me and then I took off running towards him. He picked me up in his arms and kissed me and all the awkwardness was gone. Our moment was short lived though since his whole family was there to see him too. I had to share him ... Boo I don't like sharing my man! Haha.
We spent a blissful few days together with his family. But we had to separate yet again because he had to "Reintegrate" before he could take his leave {vacation} and come home. Thankfully this time it would only be a few weeks til we were together again.

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{Anniversary Series} Part 3: Long Distance

I didn't hear from him for awhile. I started to forget about and try to stick to to my New Year's resolution. Then one day I get a call from a number I didn't recognize. It was some guy, I didn't recognize his voice. He played around with me trying to get me to guess who he was. It was always silly little games with him. You're not allowed to have your cell phone in basic training but he was sneaking to call me. From there it wasn't long before we were talking close to every day. It was the one that I looked forward to. We began our long distance relationship. It felt pretty natural around him. He was easy to talk to, we had a lot in common etc.

It was a week before he told me he loved me.

A month later he flew back home and surprised me for my 18th birthday. His friends picked him up and brought him to my house. They said they had a big birthday present for me for my birthday. They brought me out and opened the trunk and Evan popped out!

A few weeks later I talked my parents into taking a motorhome trip to Colorado to see Evan before he deployed to Iraq. We went on our first date dinner and a movie. We went to Chili's and saw Constantine. Which is still one of our favorite things to do for dates. We love the movies! Then he asked my parents permission to date me.

It wasn't long after we left Evan deployed to Iraq for a year. It was the hardest relationship because it was not only long distance. But he was deployed into a war zone. At that time {2005} they didn't have Skype. So we all we had was letters, email, yahoo messenger and phone calls. Which were scarce most of the time. The only time we got to see each other was when we sent each other pictures. It was kind of romantic because it was old school in a way. That year definitely made our relationship stronger.

In Colorado in my parents motor home before he left for Iraq

High School Prom

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Click to read Part 1 and Part 2 of our story