Valentine's Day Blog Swap

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I am so excited to participate in the milspouse blog hop and to present to you my guest blogger for the day. April has the cutest blog along with the most adorable little girl so after you read her post here be sure to hop on over to her blog and check it out!


Hi friends! My name is April and I blog over at Marine Parents -- I’m so excited to be guest blogging today for The Life of an Army Wife! Today I want to tell you about the biggest Valentine’s Day surprise that my husband and I have pulled off together :) But first, let me take you back a few months.... nine months, to be exact *wink*

In spring 2008 Caleb got orders that we were to PCS from our home in Atlanta to Jacksonville, North Carolina. He would be deploying within the month of checking in, so rather than going up to our new duty station with him and being lonely for seven months, we decided to take his leave time before checking in and drive from Atlanta to Salem, Oregon so I could stay with my parents for the deployment. We had a great time traveling cross-country together and spending a week with each of our families. Three days before Caleb’s flight left from Oregon to head back to Jacksonville, two pink lines showed up.

Wow! What a huge surprise! But with Caleb’s impending deployment, it seemed terrible timing -- he was going to miss the birth of our first child. We knew that this was our life, {this is the military, after all!} so we said our bittersweet goodbye at the airport and waited. Ten weeks went past and after having a thumbs up from my first ultrasound that the fetus was healthy and growing we told our friends and families! The next several months were a blur of planning, waiting for phone calls, emailing belly pictures and ordering cloth diapers {yes, I’m one of those moms *wink*}

December rolled around and Caleb’s unit was sent home early!! They were the last HML/A unit to leave Iraq and I was so excited that he would be there to meet our baby girl when she was born!! I flew out December 14th from Oregon to meet him the day his plane landed in Jacksonville. We spent three fun weeks together with friends before I flew back to Oregon {alone}. My doctor was phenomenal and she delivered at a private birthing center at one of the top 100 hospitals in America. It was either that or Naval.... I’m sure you can see how difficult my decision was!!

{At this point I’m sure you are thinking to yourselves, “I thought this was a Valentine’s Day post??” I assure you.... after a much long-winded preface, I am now to the meat of the story!}

January went by quickly, and I had began to dilate, albeit slowly! Caleb was going to wait until I was at least 3cm before he drove cross-country {again!}, but the day my doctor told me I was 1cm he decided to take off! We kept his impending arrival a TOTAL secret -- no one knew! He made it from Jacksonville to Salem in record time... two days!!! I saw the lights from the truck while I was in my parents’ kitchen making a snack. I quickly told them I needed to grab something from the car and ran out into the freezing northwestern air barefoot and pregnant to meet my husband for a sweet kiss - It was Valentine’s Day and we were together!

Such a sweet story. Thanks again April!!