A little Background...

October, 2004
My sister said, "I met the PERFECT guy". I said, "Wow...it's really too bad you're already married..." She meant perfect for me. We met for the first time in the sanctuary of the church that would soon become our home church. He had a beautiful and genuine smile. That was it.

October 14th, 2006
One of the happiest days :) You know the saying, "Today I married my friend"? Very, very true in this instance. Jamie is my best friend, the one God prepared for me. He is, to me, a beautiful reflection of Christ's patience, understanding, humility, and unconditional love. We married, promising to love one another during the easy times and the hard times. All couples stand at the alter and make this promise to one another, assuming that those "hard times" are still many tomorrows away. Not always so. Our "stresses" as husband and wife began very quickly...

December 30th, 2006
Jamie and I loved our first apartment. It was the bottom right apartment of a brick fourplex, and was so beautiful with it's fireplace and bright colors. I remember that it always smelled like freshly picked apples!! On the 30th, a fire began in the basement of the fourplex, and spread to our apartment. Many of our belongings (including wedding gifts) were unsalvagable due to smoke or fire damage, and we were left with no home. Thankfully, this didn't happen when were in bed asleep, but rather when I was at work, and Jamie was home but awake, and able to quickly exit the house.

God's word tells us to clothe the naked, and feed the hungry. Our church family was a very literal representation of this verse. We were taken into their arms, and provided with food, clothes, and MANY offers of places to live! Most importantly,we were bathed in their prayers! To this day, I am unsure as to what we would have done, had we not been part of such an amazing church family. God is so good, and so many wonderful blessings came from this time of our life. We grew closer to our God, closer to one another.

Mid-July, 2007
I remember the feeling the moment I got the phone call. My husband, on the other end of the line, had just recieved word that he would be leaving for, literally, the other side of the country for the next six months, to train for the position he now holds....oh, and also, he would be leaving in just under 2 weeks. The intensity of his upcoming training would make it impossible for me to move across the country with him, so we knew this would be goodbye. 6 months! I remember how excited he was, but also so hesitant, waiting for my reaction. We had known this was coming, but this made it real. We hadn't been married even a year yet, and had spent only a couple of those months actually living alone, in our own apartment. I felt like we hadn't yet been given the chance at a "regular marriage", and now he was leaving.

I only had one "nervous breakdown". About 3 weeks before our 1 year anniversary. At that point I felt like I missed him so much I couldn't breathe. Alone in our apartment, I cried and cried until I heard the phone ringing in the kitchen. It was my mom: she had decided she wanted to fly me out to see Jamie at the "halfway point" (3 months). I have the most amazing mother in the world: she has ALWAYS put her four children first. That being said, I don't think I've ever loved her more than at that point in time.

Our six months apart were so incredibly hard for me. I would cry everywhere: at home, at Sobeys, on the way to work, simply because I missed being with my husband. But those six months were SO good for me. So often, I heard the Lord again whispering to me, "No, lean on ME first." Before Jamie and I had ever met, He was my God. He was my All. He gives us human relationships to provide a physical example of our relationship with Him: but never to replace Him, or move Him to second place.

During this time, my God also painted on my heart many beautiful truths.

My husband is far away. But my God is not.

Our life together has been so difficult this far. But it hasn't. God asks so much more of many people. Our trials are so small.

Human relationships bring pain when individuals are physically or emotionally separated.
But my God will never leave me. Nothing can separate me from his love.

Six months apart brought us to January, 2008. We were reunited, but we still had the difficult task ahead of us of saying goodbye to our family, our friends, our church, and our life in New Brunwick. But not to our God. He was coming with us to Newfoundland.