picture this: it's 115 degrees, in a sweaty uniform, carrying all your equipment to and from work. it's dark out, waiting around concrete walls. you hear diesel engines running, various languages being spoken around you. thousands of miles away from home. away from friends and family. all you have are the people who you work with. then there's this guy. there's something about him. he's quiet, keeps to himself, throws the occasional joke around. you don't really know much about him. just his last name, Kramer. but there was something about him- you just had to get to know him. so these long nights at work turned into long conversations, getting to know each other. discovering all the things in common, and not in common. learning each other's interests, sports teams, family, friends, goals, ambitions, everything. one thing lead to another. but remember, we're in a combat zone! so there's no going out on a date. there's no catching a movie, going out for drinks, finding a new restaurant. there's work, more work, and more work. so what did we do? well, took advantage of what we could do and what we both loved. going to the gym of course! we became workout partners. Courtney showed Kyle the world of Crossfit workouts (much to his dismay at first) and Kyle showed Courtney powerlifting (which she didn't want to admit that she really liked). so work nights spent talking, work days spent in the gym... now what? DUH, NHL 21 was released and Kyle got it on playstation. So he invited Courtney to his room to check it out. Then again. And again. So you're probably thinking. Who the heck falls in love on a deployment? Courtney and Kyle did. There's nothing romantic about a deployment. But that's the metaphor. Rihanna said it well, "we found love in a hopeless place". We really did. Take the scary, the sad, the difficult, the annoying, back breaking life we lived and we found love. We hung on tight and never looked back. We didn't embark on that year to find love, but love found us. So despite all the hardships and difficulties we dealt with, we had each other. Through the encouragement of our friends and family, we took a chance on our love. We moved in together upon retuning home, and it all just worked. It worked so well. I don't want to say the rest is history, because there is so much more of our story to be had. But we are so excited to continue loving and exploring life together. It's simply amazing.