Thunderstorms

This weekend has been fraught with thunderstorms. I am not a fan. I like lightening, hate the thunder. Seriously, I hate thunder. I am a grown woman who will hide under a blanket with my teddy bear (Alex) and I just... hate it.

Stephen knows this.

Once, when we were dating, there was this Gigantic. Huge. Awful. thunderstorm. It was the worst. Windows were rattling with the wrath of this storm. And my three roommates and I were huddled in the living room, terrified.

Enter, Prince Charming.

He got into his car and drove all the way to my house in the middle of a storm. He came in and curled up with me and held me through the thunder. Told you, Prince Charming.

Well, late Friday night (or early Saturday morning) we had another thunderstorm. It wasn't as bad as the one I just told you about. But it was loud enough to wake me up. After the first roar of loud thunder, my husband immediately held open his arms and pulled me into him. I buried my head in his chest and he held me throughout the storm. With each BANG, he would hold me a little tighter. It was the most reassuring thing in the world.

It was then that I felt like I finally had him home. After all the time that he was gone (almost 9 months) I had to go through thunder alone. And once we were back together in Monterey it was... how do I put this... it was HARD. The military pretty much owned him. He was constantly tired, and not much like himself because he was so busy. But that night I knew that I had my husband back, and that he would be my Prince Charming till the end of time and beyond.

It hasn't been an easy year. September 19, 2011 marked the beginning of my year from H-E-Double-Hell (as my dad likes to say). But, we made it. Finally.

Saturday afternoon Stephen and I headed out to support our soccer team (Go RSL!) The second we set foot inside the Rio Tinto stadium the rain started pouring down. We waited in line to buy horrid looking ponchos (I love the word poncho). As soon as it was finally our turn to actually buy the darn piece of plastic, the rain stopped. Story of my life. We bought them any way though. The clouds looked threatening.

We found our seats, climbed over ten disgruntled and wet people and sat down. Two seconds later there was lightening. And the game was suspended. 5/8ths of the stadium got up and went to stand somewhere dry. Stephen just looked at me and said, "We'll just ride out the storm."

And we did! We stayed, we got wet-ish (Stephen ripped his poncho...) and after waiting for an hour in the rain and lightening and thunder (it wasn't too boring, some very drunk people provided excellent entertainment) we got to watch an awesome game. Those poor people who couldn't handle the rain really missed out!

I walked away from that thinking about the year we had just made it through. The wait was long, the time was truly horrible. But it had it's moments. Visiting Stephen and having the best weekend of my life over presidents day. Our awesome airport moment. Finally being in his arms, even if it was only for a few days.

We waited out the storm, and it was absolutely worth it. It's a nice reminder that even though sometimes life gets dark and you have to hide under the blanket to escape the thunder, waiting at the end is a breath of rain soaked sidewalk. What is better than that?

And if you are lucky enough, like me, someone will come to you in the middle of your storm, open their arms and pull you close to their heart. And you will know that is exactly where you belong.