When I saw this contest in the Marie Claire magazine, I knew it would be the perfect contest for me to enter.  Not only are we getting married May 10, 2008 (and these rings would help us out financially with our wedding in a huge way) but most of all, this essay would be easy for me to write because my fiancée and I love each other in a way that not too many will ever understand.  Actually, it is your contest that helped me find the right words about our love.  Going platinum cannot describe it in any better way.

I have been in love since our first date.  Art took a little more convincing than just one date though.  We went out for the first time on May 21, 2001; he dropped me off at home and walked me to my door.  After saying goodbye, I closed the door, leaned my back against it and told myself at that moment that I would marry this man one day.  I didn't think that day would be almost 7 years later but as time has gone by, through all of the trials, test of love, and good & bad times, our love has only continued to grow stronger and the feeling of knowing I would spend the rest of my life with this man only became more intense.  The waiting has been well worth it!

It was Friday October 7, 2005 when I knew our love had "Gone Platinum."  When I met Art, he was a United States Marine.  Art lives, breathes and loves his Marine Corp.  It started to eventually become a part of my life as well.  It became a huge part of my life the day that I found out Art would be deployed to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom.  We had just relocated from Orlando Florida, where we lived for 1 year back to Cleveland Ohio.  Art checked back in to his reserve unit in Akron and found out almost immediately that in a few months, the 3rd Battalion 25th Marines would be leaving for war.  This news didn't come very easy to me.  The fear, the worries, and the concerns...they all began to come to mind very quickly.  Deep down, I truly knew that I was strong enough to go through this with Art but at that moment of age 27, I felt like my whole world was falling apart.  We began preparing for Art to leave.

In January of 2005, Art left for California for training.  The first two months were pretty easy, knowing that he was safe in the United States.  At the end of February, I got a chance to spend 72 hours in Las Vegas with Art.  It was wonderful but it was also bitter sweet.  I would have to leave his side knowing that I may never get a chance to see him again.  I took a red eye home on a Saturday night and was only home a few hours when Art called to tell me that in about 3hours, he would be leaving for Iraq.  The tears instantly began to fall from my eyes and all Art could say was that he loved me and that he was sorry he didn't tell me in Las Vegas that he was leaving the day he got back to the base.  He knew he would be leaving, but didn't have the heart to put that burden on our time together.

While Art was in Iraq, time passed pretty quickly at first but as the months went on, time definitely began to stand still.  At first, It was pretty easy to just think of Art being away in California or somewhere not in harms way because there were no injuries or deaths that we heard of back home.  Beginning in May, the reality of Art being over in Iraq became all too real.  By the time Art was to return home in October, he had lost 48 friends, men that he doesn't hesitate to call his brothers, some of which were very close to him.  There were also over 150 injured during their tour.  In a matter of 3 months, I attended quite a few funerals.  I tried to represent Art the best that I could in his absence, knowing deep down at every funeral or service that I attended; at any moment it could have been me burying the love of my life.  There was nothing easy about most of the 2005 year.  While he was gone, I was glued to the news, the internet and the friends who heard from their fiancées, boyfriends or husbands more often then I did.  Art didn't call home very much; it was easier on him if he didn't and he has never been one to write so I only received a few letters during the time that he was deployed.  I got to talk to Art about once a month, maybe twice a month if I was lucky and when we did get to talk, I spent a lot of time calling other family members on three way so that he could utilize fully the phone time that he got after standing in line for sometimes hours at a time.  When I wasn't calling others on three-way, I tried to remain strong for him while we spent the time catching up on what was going on at home as well as telling each other how much we loved and missed each other.  I sent Art 2-3 boxes per week on average and wrote him over 450 letters while he was gone and surprisingly, Art brought back home almost every letter that I wrote.  I tried to send my love to him the best that I could...through my words.  I also wanted him to feel like he was here the entire time with me, missing out on nothing going on back in Cleveland.  I clipped any and all articles from the newspapers and magazines and printed anything that I could find on the internet about the 3/25, compiling them all in to binders and boxes so that Art could one day know what we saw about his unit while he was gone.  I also made him a scrapbook, which included a poem for each month that he was gone which up until a few months ago, he couldn't even look at in full.

It was finally time for what I had been waiting for.  Art was coming back home.  Art and the rest of the 3/25 Marines were welcomed back home on October 7, 2005 with a huge heroes welcome.  The hanger at the Akron/Canton airport was packed with cheering people all to honor the Marines of Weapons Company returning home to their families.  As the men slowly walked through the predawn darkness in what looked to be rising smoke from the ground, it was something right out of a movie.  They were finally released from their formation and immediately began to embrace the families that they missed so much while there were away.  When I finally spotted Art in the crowd, it was as if the sea had parted.  We immediately made eye contact and ran into each other's arms.  It seemed like it took an eternity to get to each other.  Art lifted me up in the air and kissed me while holding me so tight in his arms.  The tears began to fall from both of our eyes, for we both knew in our hearts how lucky we were to get the chance to be together again.  It was at that moment that I knew our relationship would never be the same again.  It was at that moment that our love had "Gone Platinum."

Art has been home now for over 2 years and life as we knew it before Iraq doesn't exist.  The day-to-day struggles of adjusting sometimes try to get the best of us but together; we have developed a relationship so strong, so full of trust, so full of love.  We rely completely on each other to get us through whatever the day may bring.  We have found a level of love that I feel a lot of other couples will never get the chance to find out if it even exists and we were lucky enough to have this chance to find out if it did for us.  I don't wish upon anyone to go through what we went through for that year but I have to admit that I am grateful that I am able to experience such a love with such a wonderful man.  We understand each other and understand what a true test of a relationship is.  We don't take each other for granted for we both know first hand, tomorrow isn't promised to anyone.  We know that we will never let the other fall.  We especially know how lucky we are to be able to spend the rest of our lives together because during 2005, the fear and the uncertainty left the question of tomorrow unanswered...not knowing if tomorrow would even come for us.

Thank you for the opportunity that you have given me to tell my story to you and I wish for you a life of a love that has had the opportunity to find out if it truly can go platinum!

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