I woke up one morning and was lounging around the apartment, not properly dressed of course..lol. Darrell tells me to go get dressed. Of course I ask him why and I tell him if he has visitors coming they can wait until after 12pm because the mornings were mine. He then tells me that army recruiters were coming, that he had an appointment with them. I laughed at this because I thought he was full of it!! He had never even mentioned to me that he was thinking of the army, well, not since right after high school, but he hadn't brought it up in years. So, I told him, "yeah right, whatever Darrell". He tries to convince me for a few minutes, but I didn't believe him.....not until I looked out the window when the doorbell rang. Standing at my door were two men dressed in spiffy green uniforms (which I now know as "class A's". I hurried to the bedroom to get myself together and Darrell had no idea how mad I was!! Not about his decision to possibly join the Army, but about him waiting until the very last second to tell me they were coming!! I had no time to do my hair or put on make-up and look half-way decent...lol.
So, we both spoke to the recruiters and listened to them. Darrell decided it was what he wanted to do and I stood behind him 100%, like I always do. We had a very short time before he was to leave for BCT and we decided to get married before he left to make things easier with all the paperwork. We got married 2 weeks later on his mother's porch... beautiful day in June... only a few people were there, close, immediate family and my best friend. We had a bbq as our reception and spent our wedding night at home in our apartment. Cherishing the time we had before he left for BCT.
Watching Darrell leave for BCT wasn't really hard. I was more excited than anything and it wasn't for that long. I had no idea what to expect because I knew absolutely nothing about the Army. He got to call a few times during BCT, but mostly we wrote letters and he sent cards, the Emily Matthews cards, real sweet and poetic. I, like many others I have heard talk about, sent my DH letters with heart stickers and such on them. One letter even had confetti in it!! The next chance he got, he called me and told me to stop because for every sticker he had to do so many push-ups. Boy did I feel bad because he had a letter coming to him with at least 50 tiny heart stickers and confetti inside. All I could do was warn him. (Sorry love!! lol)
So, he graduated from BCT and I was super excited to go see him. The boys stayed with my mom while I went with his parents to KY to support my husband. The first time I saw him in his uniform my heart melted. I thought he was the most handsome man I had ever seen!! I was so proud to walk next to him knowing the sacrifices he was now going to be making for us and I loved him more than ever. We had a few days together before I had to leave. He was staying there for his AIT and I had to go back home to Jersey. Leaving him that day was one of the hardest days of my life.
That's where our story begins in regards to our life as an Army family.
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