Homecoming is North of Positive!

One day I had a not so uplifting thought and I verbalized it (yeah, it happens).  My clever husband brought it to my attention.

“Well, that was a little south of positive.” Simply stated but oh so true!

The first thirty years of my life I stayed parked a little south of positive…. with the emergency brake on to boot.  My positive meter didn’t shoot up until I came to know Christ.  I really do try to keep it there regardless of what is going on around me. This is Homecoming week here at Hills of Mercy and, I promise you, I am WAY north of positive about that!

Courtesy of (in)courage.me

I can now count the decades since this handsome guy walked through the office of my college workplace.  The moustache might have gotten to me first, or maybe it was the mullet, but in reality I am pretty sure it was his attitude.  Talk about north of positive! This guy was always whistling or smirking or singing and UGH did it get under my skin!  I had just been thrown from a recent engagement like a wild horse bucks an unwanted rider so I did not want this handsome guy lurking around and messing with my Eore mentality.  It took him a couple of days to ask me out. Three hundred and sixty-some days later, I finally agreed to our first date!

Our life would grow and fall apart and eventually grow again, only this time, beyond our wildest dreams. I witnessed as this man blossomed from not knowing what he wanted to do with his life to becoming an awesome businessman.  My Yankee was actually in a business meeting on that horrible day when those jets flew into the Twin Towers.  It never occurred to me as the ensuing wars continued on that our lives were about to change forever.  

One night we were watching the news.  The touching story was featuring men who were deploying for the second and third times.

“Why do they have to leave their wives and children over and over but I get to sit here enjoying mine?  It doesn’t seem fair.  I have military experience.” He was speaking of his time in the military way before I had ever entered the picture.

I have mentioned that I can be naive.  Which is precisely why nothing crossed my mind that evening when he spoke those words. It would be weeks later when he was gone on a job interview for longer than I expected that I finally suspected something was up.

 

I was upstairs homeschooling our kids when it occurred to me how long he had been gone.  In an instant God put it on my heart that whatever was about to happen was not only going to be huge, but it would be okay. 

 

Time ticked by until I heard his car in the garage and then him bounding up the steps two at a time.  He stood in the doorway of our ‘classroom’ with the most excited look on his face.

“I know that we did not talk about this and I hope that you can understand and you are not mad at me… but I just… well, I just re-enlisted.”

“It’s okay.” I told him.

“What do you mean its ok? That’s it?”, he said.

“Yes," I explained, "you are going to think I am nuts but while you were gone, God gave me peace about whatever it was you were going to tell me."

“Wow," he said, "that’s amazing because the whole day I was praying that God would help you to understand and not be mad."

And yes, just like that, in an instant, my businessman became my protector, one of our countries great protectors, and I became a military wife.  His career has advanced over the years to even bigger and more amazing things, keeping us apart more often than we are together, keeping him in harms way a good part of the time.

So by now you probably get what Homecoming week is?  It never occurred to me that I would be the wife of someone who spends their time in a war zone.  And I had no idea how to be this person.  No training.  No military spouse support group.  No base living with other military wives.  Time and time and time again I get asked how I do it.   And there is really no great formula.  God showed us this was my husbands calling. We look at it as a gift....a huge adventure and goodness knows we love adventure around here. 

And there is one other thing I find helps me cope…..I stay a little north of positive!!!!

Til next time ya'll...(which may be a while because we have a Homecoming to celebrate!) In the meantime, I am linked up today at Woman To Woman.
God Bless and Love Everyone!!!