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Today is Veterans Day. As my husband kissed me goodbye before leaving for work and my children settled into various leisurely activities in celebration of the long weekend, I paused to give thanks for the unanswered prayers of a teenage girl and paths not taken.

The first boy I kissed was a soldier. It was his first love and true calling. I remember the day he pledged himself to the service of our country. My teenage heart wanted him to stay, to guard me from a home with sadness and promise me a future. It wasn’t meant to be and I mourned what I thought I lost.

Today I look at the home my husband and I have built and give thanks for the hidden blessings of paths not taken. This Veterans Day I am grateful for a young boy whose life of service gift my children a safer world and for the man I married whose love gave me a future my teenage self could not have imagined.