Adam and Jennifer Howard (submitted by Adam Howard)
It all started the summer of 1996…… I was a third year forestry student at Auburn University (AL) and I began the process of sending out applications to the United States Forest Service for summer employment. I had been out west before on a family trip and I knew I wanted to center my summer towards Colorado. So, all of my applications covered 4 or 5 national forests in Colorado. It was March that I heard the good news and I accepted a timber crew position with Routt National Forest based in Steamboat, Colo. After blowing through my exams that May, I had my 1989 Chevy S-10 loaded with everything I owned and had my sights towards the west, really never thinking that my life would not quite be the same.
My first week was typical timber crew work away from Steamboat and the second week was a required fire training week away from Steamboat. Well, I just so happened to get called the day after training and I ended up spending three weeks in Utah battling all types of blazes. As you can see, I was already five weeks into my “awesome Steamboat summer” and I had barely slept there but a few nights! Upon returning from my firefighting expedition I ventured to downtown Steamboat for their annual “Art in the Park” celebration. Full of music and crafts and people, I was excited to finally experience Steamboat after being gone for all those weeks. I was alone and I sat down to listen to a country band play. After about 20 minutes of relaxing (with my shirt off and sunglasses on) I realized a nice girl sitting alone behind me, not realizing that my life was changing in front of me and I was staring at my future wife, Jennifer. I tried offering a chair, I tried asking her the time, but nothing allowed me to get any type of conversation started with her. I should have picked up on her stubbornness earlier! I don’t remember how, but eventually we started talking and it all felt so natural. I thought she was cool, so after about an hour I asked her for her phone number. It turns out that she had just arrived in town and was staying with her sister. She was there for a week and I wanted to be a part of her. Luckily, and I do mean luckily, she gave me her sister’s last name and I was able to look it up in the local phone book and make contact the next day. After her sister persuaded her to “have some fun” while on vacation, we ended up going on a date and having a great time. After two more dates, and, before she had to return back to school at Wesleyan College in Lincoln, it solidified that I had to be with this girl…..
The natural dilemma in this situation was that she was from Nebraska and I from Alabama and we just so happened to meet in Colorado! How was this going to work? We never questioned any of it and we still both had another year of college to go. Through many plane trips to see each other, we finished that last year of college and I graduated June 1997. I ended up returning to work in Steamboat that summer so that we could continue to be “driving distance” closer. Jennifer finished nursing school in December of 1997 and it was Valentine’s Day 1998 that I asked Jennifer to marry me on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River at Indian Caves State Park. We were married October 1998 and soon thereafter made our home in Alabama so that I could concentrate on a forestry career.
We now have three wonderful children, Colby 8, and twins Caleb and Kaitlyn 6. We moved to Nebraska City in 2008 so that I could begin my position with Arbor Day Farm and so that we could be closer to Jennifer’s family. It’s quite ironic how sometimes life brings you full circle.
Jennifer, you are a special person and I am lucky to have you as my wife. For the record and for all to see, thank you for giving me your sister’s last name that summer day, thank you for saying yes on that cold winter day at Indian Cave, thank you for agreeing to move to Alabama, thank you for providing the love I needed when my mother passed away, thank you for giving us three beautiful children, thank you for agreeing to move back to Nebraska, thank you for your stubbornness, and most of all, thank you for being you. You’ve never changed and I love you for that. May God continue to bless our lives in the future as he has in the past…. Happy Valentine’s Day!
Love,
Adam
