“Despite the distance, our marriage is the strongest it’s ever been.”

Meet Brianne. She has been married to Scott for seven years and has known him for ten. Throughout that time, they have PCSed five times, endured four deployments, and he switched branches of the military. Scott was originally in the Navy and decided to become a Marine Corps officer after graduating with his Bachelor’s degree.

The transition from a laidback Navy job to a much more involved, stressful, and time-consuming was difficult. They had to PCS to Quantico, Brianne went from working to full-time to not working at all, and they were pregnant with their daughter, Amelia. There was not only a serious shift in roles, but also lifestyle and location. All of that compounded together is not something civilians typically have to face!

Throughout Brianne and Scott’s time together, they have faced a lot more than many other couples their age. While Scott was in the Navy, Brianne’s brother unexpectedly passed away. During that same time frame, they were struggling with infertility for over three years before the got pregnant with their daughter. At one point, Scott and Brianne were working opposite schedules and she was going to the fertility clinic up to fourteen times a month to have hormone levels checked. Scott couldn’t come to many of these appointments because of his work schedule. As everyone always says (which is so frustrating and a discussion for another time), it happened when they stopped trying and least expected it. They were about to move to Quantico and she found out she was pregnant!

Fast forward two years later when Scott comes home from his first Marine Corps deployment. Surprise! They found out they were pregnant again in March of 2017. Unfortunately, that pregnancy did not come to term, and it was diagnosed as a molar pregnancy. When Brianne told me this, I had no idea what that was. Essentially it is an abnormality of the placenta, where a growth continues to get larger, but no viable embryo grows. She noticed she thought she was showing a little earlier than the last time she was pregnant, but didn’t think much of it because it was her second pregnancy. When she went in for her 10-week ultrasound, they told her she had this rare abnormal pregnancy. Typically, the miscarriage can be resolved with little to no issue. Unfortunately, in even rarer cases like Brianne’s, the growth can become cancerous. She endured chemotherapy treatments to try and combat this growth of hormones for three months. Initially, the treatment seemed to be working, however, the growth returned upon completion of the chemotherapy and she had to continue to get boosters of chemotherapy. This type event alone is a trying event for any woman, man, or marriage. Compound this traumatic experience with the absence of one’s husband. During the one year that Scott was home between deployments, he was gone for approximately three to four months, and often unable to attend doctor’s appointments or chemotherapy appointments with Brianne. Thankfully she has now fully recovered!

Scott is now deployed for the second time with the Marine Corps and Brianne decided to move back home with her parents to have help with Amelia and save some money…we probably should have done the same! I am excited to know that we will be meeting them in Quantico in October as well!