Life with the Russell's: Welcome to Our Life

Hello! We are a small family living in the small town, Maysville, KY. I'm the wife/mother in the family, Ashley. I am married to my highschool sweetie, Daniel. We were both raised in KY and met through school. After many attempts to take me on a date, I accepted and we have been together ever since. We are three years apart in age, started dating when he was 16 and I was 13. A lot of people said we were too young, he was too old, it would never work, yadda yadda. Our 'together' date is July 3, 2013, which means this year we will be celebrating our 9th anniversary. When we began dating, Daniel was a Senior and I was a 'greenie' otherwise known as a Freshman. We got closer each day and became inseparable. That is, until he left for the Marine Corps in June of 2005. I absolutely dreaded the day we would part for the long 13 weeks of bootcamp, along with the 5 years he promised to serve his country. However, little did I know, that day and those 5 years would be the most challenging time of my life. The day he left for bootcamp is one I can relive every time I think of it. My mom allowed me to stay at his house with his family as he would be leaving Carlisle, our residence at the time, at 5am to head to Florence where he would depart for the Marines. I remember him waking up, shaving, and getting his things ready to go. I refused to watch as it hurt knowing the day had come and soon we would be in different states. When we arrive to the recruiter's station in Florence, KY, my heart sank. We walked inside and I can remember just holding him and not wanting to let go. Time had passed and we heard, "it's time to tell your family good-bye." He hugged his mom and dad then came back to me and I held onto him like we were in a Tornado. After what felt like a second we heard, "GET ON THAT BUS, NOW, NOW, NOW!!!" And in a flash, he was gone. I felt like I had just lost my bestfriend, even though I knew we would be reunited in just a few months. I cried the entire way home. I can remember the bus driving past us and his father began to cry out loud which made me cry even harder. I wrote many letters each day, so many I wondered if he would get to read them all before he left. After 13 letter's (one a week) from Daniel, 13 long weeks, many hard nights, and tears shed, it was time to go and get him! It was time to head to Parris Island,SC and collect my Marine. The drive seemed to take forever but we made it. We drove onto the base and walked around to view the beauty. It was like being on a different planet. You heard Marines marching, you saw them running, you saw their history around the base - it was incredible. We decided to take a seat and observe this new planet. A commanding officer approached us and asked which recruit was ours and we told him last name was Russell and which platoon he was in. In front of us, coincidentally, there was a platoon. The CO walked over and began to stare at each recruits name tape. He walked to one, about 5'5 with dark hair, looked at us and shook his head, 'yes.' Daniel had no clue what was going on or why he was being stared at by a CO. But somehow, we chose the right seat and were staring in his direction, his platoon, that entire time. Who would have thought? Family Day came and we finally got to hold our Daniel after the beautiful ceremony. Trying to find him in the sea of Marines seemed impossible. Although, when I did, I held onto him like I was going to blow away. Finally, after over 3 months of being apart, I was holding him. When he turned around and we stared eye-to-eye, I thought, "Wow, I truly love this guy." And in my ear he whispered, "I Love you." From that moment, we just knew. It was a moment I will never be able to forget. He was able to come home for 10 days before heading to NC for Combat Training. On his last night home, he picked me up from school with my favorite food at that time, Subway. We went to his mom's house and as I was fixing to eat he asked if I would get his cell phone from the bathroom. He never asked me to do anything for him so I knew his was up to something. I went into the bathroom and there sat a white box with a red ribbon around it. On the box, it said "Friedman's" which is a jewelry store. I walked with it back into his room with a "WTF is this" face and he looked at me with a smile. As I sat there with my mouth wide open, he asked, "Will you marry me?" The words surfaced around in my head for a split second and I, of course, said "YES!" I was 2 days short of being 15 years old with 3 more to go until I was legally able to get married. But that didn't matter, we were two kids in love. He left for MCT and then was off to California and then was back to the east at his duty station, Camp Lejeune, NC. We had planned for a 2008 wedding as that would be when I would turn 18 but things happened and we didn't tie the knot like we thought we would have. He was deployed twice to Iraq. And in 2009 he PCS'd to South Korea for what we thought would be 12 months but turned into 15 months. We were always 500+ miles apart those 5 years but he always found a way back home. In June of 2010 he was officially honorably discharged from the Marine Corps with 2 years left as an Inactive Reservist. Finally, he was HOME! From then we started our own life. We moved from Carlisle to Maysville. He began college and I had just graduated from there with an AAS and became a Certified Medical Assistant. The next year, October 6, 2011, we got hitched at the court house. In August of 2012 we bought our first home together. And this year, April 23, we welcomed a beautiful baby girl, Olivia, into the world. Now you know how we met and how we came to be today who we are. :) Hope you enjoyed the short story of it all! Here are some pictures of the early years up until this day of us. Spring Break to Panama City, FL 2005