8 Wonderful Years

I met the love of my life in September of 2001 and it was love at first sight from across the parking lot for both of us. I still remember what he was wearing and he always told me he remembered what i was wearing to. It all started from there. We started to date and were inseparable, I always wanted to be with him. After 2 years of dating and never thinking that he was going to pop the question he got orders to transfer to Fort Riley, KS. I was so upset because we were not married, so I wasn't able to go with him. Finally, two months before he was supposed to leave, he asked me to marry him. We got married on the 3rd of August and it was the best day of my life. I married my best friend and the love of my life.

He loved the army he was a true soldier through and through. He knew every rule, read every book he could and loved his job as a tanker, 100%. He was deployed to Iraq for his first tour in January '05-'06. I got the phone call you never want to receive that he was injured by an IED blast he was ok just had to have surgery to have shrapnel taken out of his neck and thigh. He returned home later that year and I immediately got pregnant with our son. That was the most exciting news! We got transferred to Texas and he got orders to go to Iraq for a second tour. I knew this was going to be so much different this time around with us having a 1 year old, and things just seemed different this time too. We talked about things we didn't the first time, like where he wanted to be buried and things like that. It was very hard to hear because it was like he knew he wasn't going to come home.

He left in November '07 for Iraq and I thought everything was going to be okay, due to the fact that he was hurt in his first tour, so he had to come home to me and our son. God wouldn't do that to me again. Well, this time was a hell of a lot different. It's like on the movies you have seen: the army guys waiting to tell you the news that your husband was just killed, and all you can think about is wanting to beat the hell out of them and tell them to leave you alone and that your husband is fine because you just talked to him yesterday morning.

One day your life is so perfect and the next day it is turned upside down and in circles. Some days I don't know how I will ever go on with out him in my life and think about how my son will not have his father in his life. I always ask, "Why did God have to take him? Why was it his time?" He was so happy here on earth with us and he wasn't ready to leave us.

Those 8 years we spent together will be ones that I will treasure for all eternity and will remember forever. I still remember the way he smells and the way he kissed me every time he came home from the gym, all sweaty and gross. I would trade anything to have that back. He is the love of my life, my best friend and the father of my son and he will always and forever be in my heart and never forgotten. We love you so much baby and miss you more than you will ever know.