Present Day

 April 2012 and I feel as if my life is just now at my finger tips. Moving from grade 5 to grade 1 for the upcoming school year, defining career moves for my husband which could mean another 12 years in the military or starting our life in the civilian world, the Warrior Games which could earn my husband a spot on the US Paralympic team and finishing my 1st semester of graduate school. Comfy in my home surrounded by a family that loves me and friends that help me enjoy this ride they call life and plunging head first into the next chapter of my life.

Aunt Tay Tay

February 17, 2011 my very first niece Abigail Renee Wilson was born and has had the entire family wrapped around her finger ever since. She is sassy and full of spunk and makes me look forward to being a parent one day.

Quite a Change

I went from being the student to now being the teacher. Terrified of the new journey I am going on, I am ready to embrace the 26 young souls that walk into my classroom. Ten going on Twenty-five, I not only survive but thrive during my first year as a teacher. I form many new friendships, learn things about myself that I never knew and am able to end on a happy yet tearful note.The children that walked into my life were a blessing and having to let them go was hard.

Finally Made It

 College Graduation is here. A day that I never thought not only would come but that I would actually make it to. May 2010 and I am ready to embrace the world. Twenty-two, vibrant and ready to take on any challenge that comes my way. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

The Call

5am on 22 April, 2008 and nothing could have prepared me for what was on the other end of that line. Everything from that call is blurry, gun shot, 3,  and amputation were the defining words that kept ringing in my head after I hung up the phone. I was ready to go to Iraq, I was ready to go find my husband and make sure he would be ok but in reality, all I did was hurry up, and wait. Wait for a phone call, wait to be told where I was going and wait for everything to be ok. Hurry up and get all my i's dotted and t's crossed, bags packed and arrangements made. Three days later I was living in a house with families of wounded service members with very little privacy in a new city and a husband who was not the same as when he left me. Eight surgeries and 21 days later, he left the hospital and I was the person who had to help put all of our pieces back together, while still recovering from my own injuries.

Crash

Twelve weeks of surviving with out my husband and I feel as if I am in a groove of life. Work, school, rest is the routine I have found and enjoy. On a typical Monday, I pack my lunch, get all of my school materials ready so I can study at lunch and head to work. Within 20 minutes I would be in a helicopter, unconscious and heading to Dallas for a week long stay on the cardiac unit. I never saw the truck coming, I never felt any pain although my entire world as I knew it would be different. Weeks of intensive therapy, exercises to help my brain heal, 24/7 care and a loss of all independence is what my world now consisted of. At the time I was angry at everyone and everything but now, I consider it a blessing that I was chosen for.

The Hardest Good-bye

Good-bye's are temporary, sometimes a day, or even a month but this time, I say good-bye for 15 months. Staring at the most daunting task I have ever encountered, I say good bye to my new husband in November of 2007 and let him leave me for a war on the other side of the world for 15 whole months.