I have shared this story at Genesis, as well as with some family and friends here and there, but was informed that I have not written about it and thought it worth telling again.
My son, Samuel, is in the Marine Corps and was stationed at Camp Lejeune, in North Carolina. Some months ago, he set sail for the Persian Gulf. He is part of a traveling battalion with three ships and thousands of personnel which is basically a traveling military base on the go. Because of the nature of their service, he is unable to tell us where he is going, only where he’s been. In fact, in many cases he himself doesn’t know where they are going.
It has been difficult for Samuel and his wife, Dominique, (who’s in the Army and stationed in Hawaii). The amount of time that they have been able to see each other in the past year could be counted on one hand, which only adds to any difficult adjustments of marriage. As Samuel headed to the gulf he was able to stop in Spain, Greece and a number of other places that made me a bit envious, but he finally made his way to a base in Kuwait. Dominique, on the other hand, was on her way to Iraq by plane some months after Samuel set sail.
The base in Kuwait is a training facility for the Marines, the Army, and the Navy. It houses thousands of military personnel who are constantly being brought in and deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan or other areas in the region. After moving from the aircraft carrier to the base on land, Samuel made his way to the mess hall to get something to eat with some of his buddies. As he was walking through the huge mess hall (seats about 2,000) something caught his attention. He thought for a brief moment before turning to take a second look that this was not possible, but knew he had to look anyway. As he turned around, standing there before him was Dominique, his wife. They were both stunned and embraced. Realizing where she was and that she is not supposed to show this much public affection, she said that she should go and went back to her table. As Samuel was about to walk away, he turned back and thought, ‘forget this!’ and ran back over to her and continued embracing his wife. I sooo wish I had a video of this encounter.
Even though they had different schedules that kept them from being together as much as they would have liked, they were able to spend about a week together on that base and both felt it a miracle that they even saw each other at all. I love these kinds of stories, because the odds of them happening at all are so staggering. Combine that with those who were praying for these two and their marriage, it really encourages one’s faith that God does have His hand in our lives and that He really is with us!
