I've been married to my husband for a decade. I wasn't prepared as a new military wife for how long he'd be gone.

• My husband was in Kuwait and I was in Minnesota when we received congratulations on our wedding. • We've been married for 10 years now, but things like trainings and deployments have kept us apart. • We get to keep our own identities while making time for each other.

My husband and I started our part-time military marriage the day we got married in two different countries. We were both at work (he in Kuwait and I in Minnesota) when we received emails on our phones congratulating us on our newlywed status. So began our life together as husband and wife.

In the 10 years since then, situations such as deployments, rotations, job opportunities, graduate school, courses, field exercises, travel, and training have kept us apart for about half of that time.

I didn't know how long he'd be