Don't Take Anyone for Granted

We had an excellent visit last night with a family from our ward, a young couple with a 2 year old and a baby.  He is an active duty Marine and she was formerly a Marine.  They actually met when they were attending The Basic School together (school for all new marine officers), and they liked each other right away.  The trainees were not allowed to date, so she circumvented that by taking him to church - not considered a real date.  He joined the church and was baptized.  They fell in love and after TBS got engaged. You have to be a member of the church for a year before you go to the temple, so they were going to wait a year to get married so they could marry in the temple.  However, they found out that they both might be deploying to Iraq.  So they went ahead and got married in a civil marriage in a regular chapel, and 2 weeks later he shipped out for 7 months in Iraq.  They worked hard to stay connected and communicate often, but it was very hard.  Then he came home, but a week later she had to deploy to Iraq for 7 months.  Again they worked at staying in touch, but it was very hard.  In their first 15 months of marriage they were together for 3 weeks.  They said that although it was very hard when they were going through that period of separation that in the long run it strengthened them.  They had to fight and work hard to stay in touch and connected.  It made them closer.  And they never, ever take each other for granted, treasuring the time they have together now.