Distance, in a relationship teaches many lessons in the process of overcoming the barriers. Jamie Brown, a science teacher at Omaha North, has been married to her husband, Dillion Brown for two years. Dillion is enlisted in the military, which in some ways takes a toll in Brown’s life.

Luckily, for both, Dillion is stationed in Nebraska and they live together in Bellevue. He gets deployed for about two to four months at a time but stays home for about six months out of the whole entire year.

While they live together when he is in town, Brown explained how seeing her husband after his return still gives her butterflies in her stomach.

“It’s super awkward when you first see them after four months of not seeing them at all. There’s that split moment when you don’t know if you hug or you kiss or if you high five or handshake. You don’t know what to do,” Brown said.

Communication, a key factor to a healthy relationship, has never been a barrier for Brown and her husband. They would consistently text each other or facetime when they could. While trying to balance their opposite schedule, they still make time for each other.

Before Christmas Eve, Brown’s husband was on a deployment trip in England, Greece and Japan and each time he would buy a new sim card to continue talking to her.

Brown made a joke saying there are times when she stopped what she was doing to reply to her husband’s text message.

“Yeah there has been a few times where I’ll be like, ‘everybody sit tight, I’ll be right back,” Brown said.

Brown explained her relationship with her husband as someone who knows her very well as they have been friends since high school and romantically involved for four years already.

“You’re so used to being your individual person and then when you marry someone or are involved with someone, you now have something else attached to you. Learning how to live with that is hard especially if you are an independent person,” Brown said.

Filled with love, Brown and Dillion have been trying to have a baby for about eight months already. Eventually they stopped trying intentionally and allowed things to flow naturally and believed when the time comes, the pregnancy will happen.

On her husband’s birthday, Brown decided to prank Dillion by taking a pregnancy test. Unexpectedly, the test came out positive – she was pregnant.

Leaping from excitement, Brown ran down the stairs to interrupt Dillion’s shower. Through glee, she shouted there was two lines.

At the moment, her husband stopped showering and stood there confused, wondering what his wife was rumbling on about.

After a moment of mixed confusion and excitement, Brown finally announced her pregnancy. Dillion, astounded and speechless, finished his shower before sharing a joyous moment with Brown.

“Two lines you butthole, turn off your shower…Honey we’re pregnant. Happy birthday,” Brown said.

Throughout her second trimester, Dillion was barely home because of work so it affected their time with the baby. She explained that Dillion was not able to fully enjoy the pregnancy until he got home.

“The hard part was him missing all those appointments and him not being able to feel the baby kick or kind of know what I was going through,” Brown said.

The first time Dillion felt the baby kick, while filled with excitement to see Brown’s belly move, Dillion was at first confused because he thought Brown was just laughing.

Throughout their time apart, Brown had very strong family support. Her parents and sisters were there for her whenever she needed and were willing to fly to Nebraska.

When he is around during her pregnancy, Dillion helps Brown without her needing to ask. Knowing each other for so long and learning about each other’s habit through the times spent together, Brown explained that it helps when you know each other well.

“He is really good at understanding or reading me when I need a break,” Brown said.

While the future may pose a possible hardship or difficulty and the baby will change their lifestyle, Brown has her husband and her family by her side throughout the whole process.