A Military Wife's Biography - Mindy Taylor

Here is the 4th biography in our military wife biography series. As always, you can see the whole series right here. Enjoy!

Mindy Taylor

My name is Mindy and I'm 29 years old. I'm the wife to Mark and furmom to 2 cats.

What was your life like growing up?
I had what is considered a pretty "normal" childhood. I'm the oldest of 3 kids (younger brother and sister) and my mom was a SAHM who taught piano lessons and my father had a 9-5 job at 3M. I was born in Saint Paul, MN, but moved to Austin, TX when I was 5. I don't remember much about that move since I was very young. Even though it was my father's ultimate goal to move back to MN, Austin very quickly became home. We found a wonderful church where the people became our family. I was 14 when we moved back to MN and 17 when we moved back down to TX again. I still consider TX to be home since I had the majority of my childhood there. Our family was a happy one with lots of love and laughter. Our family went through some incredibly hard times when in 1999 my father was diagnosed with leukemia. He lost his battle with cancer in 2000. Our family felt fractured at the time, but I now know that it wasn't, it had just changed. I don't know how our family would have gotten through that without our faith and our church family. After my father passed away I had a lot of anger in my heart. I was angry at everyone and everything, God, my dad for leaving us, my brother for being away at basic, my mom for I'm not sure what exactly, and my sister. I went to church because I still lived at home, but had pretty much pulled away from God and my relationship with Him. As a result, my relationships with pretty much everyone around me suffered as well. It is only by the Grace of God that my family relationships have mended and we are once again a close family. I truly believe that in times of great struggle and pain God does His most amazing work and can mold you into the person He wants you to be.

I met Mark in 2001 when we were introduced by a mutual friend. I don't know if love at first sight exists, but I definitely had some butterflies the first time I met him. It's almost 9 years later and I still have them when I think of him :). We were engaged by Dec. of 2002 and he deployed April of 2003. He was sent home early because of injuries and we were married in August of 2003. He left to go back to Iraq shortly after our wedding and we spent the first 7.5 months of our marriage separated. He has since done 2 more deployments to Iraq (total of 3) and is currently deployed to Afghanistan. I miss him so much when he is gone, but wouldn't trade our life for anything.

How did you come to know the Lord?
My parents took us to church from the time we were babies. Both of them were believers and relationships with Christ and it was their prayer that all 3 of us kids would have one at some point, also. I was 6 years old and at Vacation Bible School and my teacher was explaining what it truly meant to be a Christian and it just clicked. I prayed with my VBS teacher and I was saved. My faith has gone through a lot of ups and downs. I'm a very hard headed and stubborn person, so obedience doesn't always come easy for me when God is nudging me to do something. I have only recently come back to church after about 9 years of inactivity. I know that even when I felt so far away from God He never gave up on me and knew when I'd come back. I still struggle with fear and certain loss issues, but I know that even if I don't have the strength to face them, God does and will never leave me to face them on my own.

How do you spend your time currently?
I graduated with a degree in medical assisting in 2008, but haven't been able to find a job, so I'm a stay at home housewife. I'm seriously considering going back to school to earn a nursing degree. I'm looking at different schools in the area trying to figure out which one will work best for me. I enjoy spending time with Mark, irritating our cats, reading, visiting my family who is spread out in TX, MN, AZ, and UT, coffee dates with friends and going to the gym with my friend (well, learning to enjoy that).

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Thanks Mindy!! Look for another biography next week!!