OMG! Here it is! The last TD stateside! WOW! I thought it would never come. I am SOOOO nervous, love. It has been so hard to sleep. I just keep thinking it will be the last time I sleep on this side of the world….okokok…I’ll be back someday…but you know what I mean!

Oh love….everything we have ever wanted is about to come true. I guess I never thought it would. I guess I thought it would be like most other things in my life. It would just be something that I would forever want….something that I would always dream of, but something that would never REALLY happen. It would just be a beautiful dream that would stay that way…just a dream.

But I have since found out that dreams DO come true. Sometimes they do not happen the way you thought. Or in the time that you think they should happen. But they DO come true. Thank you, love for working so hard to make ours a reality. I know you told me many times over the last year…to just enjoy what we had…and I did, love. I enjoyed it SO much. It was all that was keeping me alive. And then you would always follow it by “you never know what might happen in the future.”…and I would always smile and nod. That is usually what I would hear someone tell someone else when they knew there was not a chance in hell of it happening…but they did not want to totally squash that person’s hopes and dreams. Kind of like when you spend your LAST dollar on a lottery ticket and your friend looks at you and says “You never know what MIGHT happen” with a smile on his/her face that all but says “YOU IDIOT! Spend that last dollar on a pack of gum!!” And you grab your lottery ticket and run home to wait for the numbers to post on the television as you hold your lottery ticket close to your chest, your heart pounding in your ears as they begin to call off the numbers. You watch each number closely, your mouth open with anticipation…and not only did you NOT win…you didn’t get ONE number right. And all you can do is stand there and look at the TV wishing you had a stick of gum!

But this time….THIS time, love…I really DID win the lottery! It really DID happen! My mind is blurred with SO many things SO many lasts….my last time to do this or that stateside….and then…there are ALL the firsts! OMG! SO many…and I can feel the butterflies take over inside my stomach and my body feel like it is trembling just a little. The first time I see you…the first time I touch you, the first time I kiss you and of course, the first time we are “together”. And then there is that first cup of coffee! I can still remember crying and crying as I sat at my computer LONGING to have a cup of coffee with you…and I remember asking God in my head if that was SO much to ask for…just ONE cup of coffee….and now…I will have one every morning with you for the rest of my life. I am SOOOOO grateful, love!

I have never been one to make long term plans. I just think that they are most often just a waste of time. And you hear so many people tell you that you will never amount to anything if you plan for nothing. I used to HATE that question in an interview….”Where do you see yourself in 10 years?” I used to want to laugh at the interviewer and say…”Are you serious? Where do you see YOURSELF in 10 years??”…but then I knew that they would have it already all planned out…and would tell me exactly where they saw themselves in 10 years. Well….10 years ago…I CERTAINLY did not see myself here…I would have NEVER imagined the things that have happened to me the last year. I guess I was not that big of a dreamer….and yet….I think I always KNEW it would happen too! How is that possible?

All I know is that I don’t know what the next 10 years will bring, but I DO know that I will be with you, love. You are the one constant in my life around which everything else revolves. So, my love….to the next 10 years….and beyond….Immer…..

Your adoring and soon to be REAL wife….D