Jake entered his front door. Beyond excited to see his wife again. But to his surprise, she wasn’t there waiting for him. Perplexed as to why she wasn’t, he put his keys and bags down on the counter and called for her.
There was no reply. Then he heard a strange noise. It sounded like a whisper and a muted rustle of feet. He tentatively strode towards it. He turned the corner and his heart stood still.
First Lieutenant, Jake Oslow, from Houston, Texas was finally back from a long deployment overseas when his life took a sudden and irreversible turn.
He was getting off his third and final flight of the day. It was a long and tiresome journey. All Jake was looking forward to now was embracing his wife who he hadn’t seen in a year. But his long-awaited reunion wouldn’t be quite what he expected.
Jake met his wife, Megan, four years ago through mutual friends. They hit it off right away and have been caught up in a whirlwind of romance ever since, or so he thought.
They got hitched a little over a year ago. It was the happiest day of Jake’s life. The following weeks felt like a dream but as the saying goes; ‘all good things must come to an end’.
A few weeks after they got married, Jake received the news that he was to be shipped off to fight in Afghanistan. It was a tough blow for the newlyweds.
He was to be gone for a long 6-months. Megan bid Jake farewell with the pain of knowing she wouldn’t see her husband for 6 months. Little did she know how fast things change.
Megan found the long-distance hard, even more so than Jake. And this bothered her. She wondered why he didn’t seem to find the distance as hard as she did.
In Megan’s mind, it meant that he didn’t care as much about her. Tension began to grow between them and things went from bad to worse.
Jake first noticed Megan act differently around 3 months into his deployment. It was when the distance really started to affect her. She became more agitated, it was like he always said the wrong thing.
Jake knew they would have a very trying few months ahead of them. But he had no idea what was coming.
Just when Jake thought their relationship couldn’t get any more strained, he learned that his deployment would be extended for another 6 months.
Still, he didn’t worry. He was devoted to her and was confident that she felt the same way. His faithfulness was admirable but was it misplaced? Time was about to tell all.
To no surprise, the extension came as another hard blow for Megan. Jake recalled how she broke down on the phone. She was crying inconsolably. It almost felt like an over-reaction to Jake. He wasn’t dying after all.
But for Megan, this news was more than she could bear. And the final straw. From then, she made up her mind. There was no way back from this.
Since then, when he’d call her, something seemed off but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Yet, when he asked if anything was wrong, she would reassure him that everything was fine.
But it was a lie. She had resolved to detach from him and soon more secrets and lies lay between them than stars in the night sky.
But just like seeing the stars, Megan’s lies were impossible to see during the warm sunlight of the day, of her bright smiles and affectionate coos. Jake was none-the-wiser.
But as he drove towards his house, these lies were about to welcome him home. He was expecting to burst through the doors to an adoring, tearful wife but that’s not what happened.
Jake entered his front door. Perplexed as to why she wasn’t there to greet him at the door. He settled his keys and bags down on the counter and called for her.
With no reply, he started to worry. Then he heard a strange noise. It sounded like a whisper. A low deep voice coming from the kitchen. He tentatively strode towards it. He turned the corner and his jaw dropped.
Jake walked into a gathering of close friends and family all around his wife. But it was what was in her arms that made him gasp and freeze. It was a baby.
But just as he started to compose himself and walk forwards, he heard another baby cry from across the room. Jake watched as his mom walked towards Megan and settled the other baby on her lap.
Megan gave birth to twins! Jake rushed over to her completely gob-smacked. Tearfully, he asked her. “Is this why you were so upset with me?”.
“Yes”, she said. “I really wanted you to make it home for the due date. I decided not to tell you so you wouldn’t feel as bad. I wanted to surprise you. But maybe I should have told you”, she confessed. His reaction?
Everything made sense now. Megan’s agitation, her emotional reaction to his extension as well as his feeling that something wasn’t right.
Jake scolded her for not telling him but he couldn’t be mad. After all, she thought she was doing the right thing for his sake. She must have struggled. But now, he stood in wonder at his sudden escalation to fatherhood.
“I rounded the corner… and froze at the door. I didn’t know what to say. I was giggling like a little school girl,” Jake said recalling the moment he saw his twins. “It was unreal, unlike anything I’ve ever felt”.
Looks like Jake’s unblinking faith in Megan and his relationship paid off. What a deserving family!
