50 More Days – An Update

Hello again, friends! I know it’s been a while. I thought that I would have so much time to blog and write thoughtful posts all summer, but as it turns out, I haven’t had time! Everyone is doing a great job at keeping me busy, and I feel like I’m doing more than just making the time pass, we’re actually making the most of it. And that’s making time go faster than I thought it would!

Curtis has now been gone for 33 days. It’s been challenging, yet easier than we had originally thought. I say that because we were expecting to only be able to write and receive letters, but we’ve had much more communication than that. We’ve been able to email often and I have gotten 2 phone calls from him! On top of that, he’s writing me a letter every day and mailing them once a week. So despite the distance, I still feel very close to him and am very grateful to know how things are going in real time. He told me that this is the most challenging thing he’s ever had to do, and will likely ever do. I can’t imagine all that he’s going through, even with the detailed descriptions he’s given me. It sounds intense and is hard to process all that he’s going through. However, he has seen God’s hand at work in many ways throughout the experience, and views this as a trial he must endure day by day. I am inspired by his strength and perseverance. Now, he is so close to the halfway point, and we are both getting excited for graduation and all the festivities that go along with that.

I have been continually blessed by my friends and family here at home, who are all very supportive and listen to me talk about Curtis non-stop. I was able to get away and enjoy a vacation with both my family and Curtis’ in the past couple weeks, and I will be sharing about those adventures soon! As I mentioned before, I have been much busier than I expected, and haven’t had much time to sit around and feel lonely or discouraged. I miss Curtis all the time, but I am not alone, and I am thankful for everyone in my life who’s been encouraging me through this. To my surprise, I haven’t even had time to do things like binge watch TV shows or other “time wasting activities.” Maybe that day will come, but with all that’s on my “summer to-do list” I don’t see that happening anytime soon!

In more exciting news, we now have tentative dates for the next big step which will begin at the end of this year, Lord willing. However, there will be a few months between this training and the next one, so where we will be this fall is currently still up in the air. 2 months ago, before all this began, I would have been incredibly stressed to not know where I’d be living less than 2 months from now. But being away from Curtis has put it all into perspective – while those months are a huge uncertainty and come with all sorts of complicated logistics, those months are all more time that we get to spend TOGETHER!! And after being apart for almost 3 months, it doesn’t matter where we end up, because we always find ways to have fun together!

All in all, even through this trial we are still incredibly blessed, and God is always good. I’m just really excited to reach the end of this and be able to experience the next step together. Thank you to everyone reading who has prayed for and supported us – we are blessed by you!