Destiny

David and Destiny met when Destiny was just a sophomore and David a junior in high school. They were classic high school sweethearts and had so much in common. At the end of her junior year, Destiny's parents decided to move from California to Indiana. Destiny stayed in California because her parents thought it would be too hard for her to relocate during her senior year and start all over at a new school. So she moved in with David’s parents while David was away at marine boot camp and training. Destiny was legally emancipated just after her 17^th birthday. She lived at David's parents' house for 6 months before he even came home in April 2007, but when he did, she got pregnant. So she was 17, still in high school, living miles away from her parents, boyfriend gone a couple weeks out of the month, and pregnant.

She finally told her parents when they flew to California for her high school graduation and they were very supportive. They agreed instead of her moving to Indiana, she should stay to be with David when the baby was born. On her 18^th birthday in August of 2007, David asked Destiny to marry him (scavenger hunt style) and she said yes. They got married two months later in October, and in January of 2008 Julian was born.

She was only in labor for 4 hours and pushed about 11 times and he was out. He had jaundice and had to stay in the hospital until he was cleared which was about three weeks. When he did finally come home he was healthy and  hardly got sick. Julian was a healthy little man.

When Julian was 3 months old Destiny found out that David was hiding something from her. As heartbroken as she was, she was determined to find out what it was. After months of digging, she found out that he was secretly talking to Destiny's really good friend behind her back and building a “friendship” with her. Destiny saw it as a form of emotionally cheating. She was crushed that he would tell her friend things that he had once told her and that he would do that to her just months after their son was born and  he spent the first 3 weeks of his life in the hospital.

Destiny and Julian

There she was, married, living miles from her family, no job (she was a stay at home mom), with a three month old and only 18 years old with marital problems. Destiny grew up with two different households and she did not want that for her son. David and Destiny talked everything out and came to terms with how to deal with their situation and they made it work. Living as a military family was hard enough, they didn't need more stress to add to that. So after a long year of David proving his trust, they were back to themselves again raising a beautiful toddler and planning another.

Being a teen mom and military wife comes with a lot of responsibilities. Destiny has not only had to raise her son sometimes on her own, but she has had to deal with keeping her marriage intact and running a household all before she was even 20 years old. Here are some words of wisdom from Destiny: "if there is one thing I have learned from this experience is that you have to have faith that things will turn out okay in the end. Be patient, when one door closes another door opens."

David and Julian