my best friend

I love my husband. We've been together since high school. We met back in 1994 when we were both 16 and had Astronomy class together. I remember he passed a note to me and on it he wrote, "Heidi, how are you?" And at the bottom of the note, his friend had wrote, "he likes you!" After 15 years later, I still have that note, along with every note he ever wrote to me.

We dated off and on througout high school. He was really the only boyfriend I ever had. In our junior year, he left and moved down to Oregon and I expected to never see him again. He was going through a rough patch in his life (being a teen and all) and so he moved to OR to live with his brother while his mom stayed up here. When it was time for my senior prom, he earned enough money through a little side job that he did, even donated some plasma so he could rent a tux and surprise me and take me to the senior prom. From then on, you couldn't pry us apart.

My parents didn't really care for my relationship with my husband. He had dropped out of high school and earned his GED through a school down in Oregon. He then went onto Job Corps after community college and became a carpenter. Well, he did not last long in that profession because he didn't care for it. After a few job changes, my parents felt that he was "worthless" and would never settle into one thing. My husband was only 19 at the time!

At 20 years old, I moved into an apartment with my husband. He decided he was going to join the Army and my parents were thrilled. They felt that he would be shipped away and I would never see him again. I personally wanted him to join because I knew that it would really help his future. The recruiter that signed my hubby up happened to also be a minister and he asked if we were going to get married. We told him we wanted to and in July 1998 we got married. Everyone knew we were eloping, and my parents were not thrilled at all. They hated him.

I moved back in with my parents when he left for boot camp. Before he left, I became pregnant with our first born. I was only 20 and had our son at 21. My parents felt it was an awful mistake. We sure proved them wrong.

A few years later we had another son and my husband left for Iraq. This was in 2003. He was gone for a year. It was difficult for us, but we were stationed at Ft. Lewis, WA. where I'm from anyway, so I had my family and friends for support. After returning back from Iraq, he trained up again and inbetween field time and me going to college to become a dental assistant, we got pregnant again with our daughter in 2006. He left for a second tour back to Iraq for 15 months when she was only 3 weeks old. Here I was, working full time with a newborn and two young boys. I had gone right back to work after my daughter was only 3 weeks old.

In the past three years we have managed to buy a home, sell a home, move to Kentucky for a year and return and now my husband is scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan again this fall. It's hard, but it's the life we chose. My husband is my best friend and he's the best supporter I have as well. I have always had a special place in my heart for my husband and always have believed in him when no one else has. He's done so much for our kids and I and he will always be my hero.

Oh, and on a side note, my parents have grown to love him so much! :)