My sweet Valentine

I met my sweet valentine "about" 10 years ago. I say about because neither one of us actually wrote the date down. But based on our best CSI techniques we think it was around February 16, 2003.

My husband and I have a unique "how-we-met" story. In January 2003 we were both deployed to a little place called Uzbekistan, he with the Air Force and myself as an Army Reserve Soldier. Sometime in February that year, I was walking down the path between tents and stumbled on a group of guys playing poker. I asked if I could play and a cute guy said "sure!" I was just joking, but he took me seriously and asked me to come over. I couldn't at the time, but told him my tent number and that he could find  me the next time they got a game together, fully thinking he would forget all about it. He didn't. A couple days later I saw him at the PX (post exchange), and all I could see over the shelf in between us was his bright blue eyes. He came around the corner and he had a flight suit on. My heart fluttered, literally fluttered, and I was in love.

We spent the next few months getting to know one another. We were very lucky in that we were semi-segregated from the world. Outside of our daily jobs all we had to worry about was us. By the time that our deployment was over we were already planning our life together.

As soon as I returned home I drove to Abilene, Texas to be with him and have been here ever since. I believe in fate and I believe that we were brought to that place for a reason. Life isn't always easy, but this was. I am so lucky to have my sweet valentine.