Obstacles

You ever had one of those days that started out really badly and got progressively worse. and the more you wish it would end, the more it just stretched on and on and you have to ask yourself "What did I do to deserve this?"

The year after I graduated from college I stayed in Miami to get some experience working in the field of aviation. The industry there is much more vast than it is at home in Trinidad and I thought the experience would do me some good. My then girlfriend didn't stay on with me. She had decided to return home. The thing is this was only six months into our relationship.

The following year was the hardest of our lives...at that time. Phone calls were expensive but since she didn't have a high speed connection at home phone calls were all we had. When she did get the interned connection we would have to schedule times to meet each other online which didn't always work out because of my work hours. We hated the fact that we were so far apart and many a tear were shed. At times we thought it made no sense continuing the relationship and talked about ending it but neither of us wanted to. She once came visit me in Miami and it was the time of our lives but after that week was over I had to watch her leave at MIA again and the pain was worse than before. Eventually I came back home to Trinidad and we thought that our suffering was over. Surely we could be together now that we both live on the same little island. But sometimes this proved to be worse than the 1600 miles of ocean that had previously separated us.

During our time back in Trinidad we had to face many obstacles but what we realized was the year we spent apart had built our relationship up to the point where it was strong enough to withstand those obstacles. We had learned to communicate very well because of all the practice we got talking with each other over the internet. We had learned to trust each other because neither of us could see what the other was doing. We had learned to be faithful to each other because neither of us want to betray the other's trust. We learned to love each other because no matter what obstacle we faced we faced it together.

When we got married in April of 2009 we had an incredibly strong relationship built on a foundation that was laid during that year spent apart. Even though it was horribly long and painful it strenghtened our relationship so that it would be able to withstand any obstacle we may face. Now,when we look back at that year we thank God for the lessons learnt and we apply them daily in our new life together.