Day 316

Happy Seven Months to Me & Zee!

Sometimes I'm shocked at how we haven't been together that long. This is definitely one of those "I know I've found the one" situations. So these seven months have felt like an eternity, because my forever is with her.

I vividly remember when I heard about her deployment.

We'd only been together a little over two weeks, and I was already crazy about her. I wasn't sure yet if love was in the picture, but - oh! - I was loving every minute.

This particular weekend, some friends of hers had come into town for the CMA Country Music Festival, and it was a bit of a surprise. Zee got invited along, and I was brought into the circle. We had a fantastic time, even if Zee doesn't like concerts or country music. Haha. We still enthusiastically (and drunkenly) purchased cheap cowboy hats for $20 a piece and "yee-haw"ed our way to the stadium.

I'd heard the word "deployment" floating around that weekend. Like how you think you heard someone say your name, but when you turn around no one is there, so you think you must have imagined it. I knew Zee was in the Army, but somehow the possibility of deployment hadn't occurred to me.

Well, the weekend was over, and good-byes were being passed around at the hotel. But as Zee was saying her farewells, she was asked when she would be deploying.

I overheard her say, "November."

I remember my heart stopping. I felt a chill in the pit of my stomach.

I realized in that moment, I had to decide very quickly what Zee was to mean to me. The magnitude and the rushed manner of this choice slammed into me and took my breath away.

I knew that I had less than five months to figure out how much I felt for her, and I had only a few weeks to decide if I would need and/or want those months.

What would be the point otherwise?

But as all this whirled through my mind, standing there in the hotel lobby, I looked at her, hugging and waving goodbye, and I knew that I could wait for her.

I might not have known whether or not I loved her at that time, but I knew she was someone worth waiting for. She was beautiful, interesting, talented, strong, kind, and all I could ask for. So if only I could love her, I could wait.

I chose.

About six weeks later, on a moonlit night in the park, I whispered, "I love you" in her ear, without a doubt in my heart.