TEAM LINDSAY: OUR STORY

Jay and I met during an internship with the Student Conservation Association (SCA) at Big Cypress National Preserve in south Florida in early January of 2001.

I had graduated from college back in June of 2000, spent my summer in Alaska working for a PhD student, and had been looking for my next big adventure (and job). My mom found an advertisement for an internship with the SCA in the south Florida swamp, and I promptly applied and was accepted. We drove cross-country from California to Florida, enjoying stops in Las Vegas, Tombstone, and San Antonio. I remember dropping my mom at the airport in Tampa and completing the drive into the swamp by myself, my excitement mounting with every mile. I was astounded at the change in scenery from beach to swamp, and stopped many times along the Tamiami Trail to sight-see and take photos. As I neared my new home, my nerves kicked in full-force. I couldn't believe I was going to be living in a "compound" (a slightly elevated block of land enclosed by a high fence - perhaps to keep the gators out! - with one building that housed a single bathroom, the kitchen and dining room, a "rec room", and a back porch, 3 outdoor showers, a port-o-let, and another small building that acted as an office for the 4 supervisors), in the swamp, with 34 other individuals, in tents (we slept 2 to a tent, picking our tent mates on day 2, before we really even knew each other, though the 5 staff members each had their own tent), for 5 whole months. I knew it would be the experience of a lifetime, but I really had no idea just how profoundly my new "job" would change my life. I have my mom to thank for discovering this adventure for me, and for encouraging me to take a chance. If it wasn't for her, I never would have met my husband, or any of the other amazing people I lived and worked with, most of whom I still keep in contact with, and a few of whom I still consider some of my closest friends.

Likewise, Jay had JUST finished college in December and had gone through some tough times (like me, he had recently broken up with his high school sweetheart, though there were other things going on in his life as well) before entering the swamp. I think most of us there were at a very pivotal place in our lives: graduating college, moving far from all our friends and family (we came from all across the country), and making important decisions about relationships and career goals. We became a very tight-knit group almost overnight. We lived together, worked together (in different areas of the preserve, taking turns trying out different career paths every few weeks), cooked together (we had an amazing chef, hired specifically to feed 35 carnivores, vegetarians, and vegans - not an easy task, and the reason I now eat my veggies! - though we all took turns as chef's helpers), cleaned together (as a group we created a "chore wheel" that we rotated weekly so that everyone in the compound took turns taking care of the mundane tasks), and played together (our weekends were spent lounging at the beach or hiking through the swamp, and we spent MANY evenings at our beloved Chickee Bar down in Everglades City). We took a few mini vacations (long weekend trips) down to the Keys, over to Miami, and up the Gulf coast, and Jay and I even enjoyed a romantic getaway to Dry Tortugas National Park towards the end of our time at SCAFL (as we lovingly nicknamed our compound). Those were some of the best months of our lives, and we look back so fondly on all our experiences there. The way we learned and experienced life and grew up and fell in love and made lasting relationships still astounds me. We are so lucky to have had that time.

As we parted ways at the end of May (following a fun trip to Disney with Jen and my cousin, who had flown out to make the cross-country drive home with me), we had no idea what lay in store for our relationship. Jay headed north to Maine to begin a through-hike of the Appalachian Trail while I went to northern California for a second SCA internship, this time at Lava Beds National Monument. I remember our last phone call before we each headed "into the woods" like it was yesterday, and the song that Jay sent me that day, "I Miss You" by Incubus, has since become "our song". To my surprise, about a week after I started my internship, I received a phone call from my dad to let me know that Jay had been injured his second day on the trail and was on his way home to Florida. Mt. Katahdin received a lot of rain on his first night camping, and he fell and tore his LCL on the way down the next morning. It meant 3 months of rest, recuperation, and healing for him, on his mom's couch. In those 3 months, we talked every single day, as soon as I came in from the field (due to the 3-hour time difference), and we learned so much about each other during those lengthy conversations. It sort of felt like old-fashioned courting, since we were so far apart (except that we had telephones and email). As we neared the end of that summer, we knew we wanted to be together again. We both applied for positions at Carlsbad Caverns National Park, and despite all odds (there is a lot of competition for seasonal positions), we both got job offers and moved to New Mexico at the end of August.

That reunion is the stuff of fairy tales.

While in New Mexico we worked on a traveling exotic plant removal team, working 8 days on (at some amazing national parks: Big Bend, White Sands, Carlsbad, etc.) and 6 days off, so we had plenty of time for adventures (often to other national parks: Guadalupe Mountains, Canyonlands, Arches, and Mesa Verde). We had so much fun during those 6 months! And then it was time to say good-bye again, since we had no plans (job or otherwise) after our positions ended. Jay went home to Florida, and I went home to California. I remember being devastated throughout that drive home (alone), which took me two long days. I didn't want things to end, but I didn't know how to make it work (being bicoastal), and I knew Jay had a lot of thinking to do before he could commit to a long-term relationship with me.

Within two weeks, our daily phone calls were back in place. By April (of 2002) I was applying for seasonal jobs in Florida. Jay called to tell me one day that he had purchased a plane ticket for me to come visit him, right away. While I was visiting, he interviewed for a job in south Florida, and I received a job offer for a position at the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge. Jay didn't get that job, but he did get a job in north Florida. So in May, he flew out to California to make the cross-country drive with me, as I once again switched coasts. We worked at opposite ends of the state for 8 long months, seeing each other every other weekend (sometimes I drove to Atlantic Beach, sometimes he came down to the swamp, and sometimes we met up for fun weekends in Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, or Tampa). When my seasonal position ended (after a 2-month extension, since they liked me so much!), I found another short-term job working for a grad student in Georgia. So the long-distance relationship continued during the summer of 2003.

At the end of that summer, Jay planned an extended camping vacation throughout the state of Georgia. I knew something was up because he was so disappointed that we couldn't go down to Dry Tortugas National Park (it was temporarily closed for construction). And why would he be sad not to be able to return to the location of our first romantic getaway, unless he was feeling sentimental?... On the fourth day of our trip, we were headed up to Amitalola Falls State Park, and stopped on the side of the road at a peaceful little waterfall. Jay wanted to take pictures. As he was setting up his camera, he sent me back to the car to retrieve his giant camera bag (where he had apparently hidden my engagement ring). While he set up for the perfect shot, I patiently looked around and birdwatched. After 10 minutes or so, he told me to turn around and check something out. When I did, I found him kneeling next to the waterfall. Initially, I didn't notice the ring and asked him what he was doing down in the mud, but it didn't take me long to realize what was happening. When he asked me to marry him, he took my breath away.

We celebrated that night at the lodge at Amitalola (where he had surprised me with reservations - no camping), finished the rest of our trip with river canyon hikes and whitewater rafting, then returned to his mom's house to tell her the news. Of course, she already knew (she was in on the planning). I wanted to tell my parents in a unique way, so I printed a bunch of photos from our camping trip (our engagement trip!) and put them into an album, with the final photo being of our clutched hands, engagement ring clearly visible, with a note to "call me!"

I was never the type of girl to plan my future wedding details as a kid, but I had always wanted a fall wedding. The problem was, neither of us wanted to wait an entire year to get married. And since it was already the end of August, we didn't think we could pull off a fall wedding that year. We came close though. I joined Jay's church and converted from Methodist to Presbyterian. We bought a house. We made plans for our future. And in early December of 2003, we were married at Community Presbyterian Church in Atlantic Beach, Florida, and had a beautiful yet casual reception at the beach with all of our closest friends and family. It was certainly one of the best days of our lives!

But our days of moving weren't over yet. As soon as we got back from our honeymoon, I learned that I had been accepted to graduate school, so off we went to Louisiana for 2.5 years. In the summer of 2006, right after I graduated, we took a much needed break from the struggles of school and a job that Jay never really liked, and spent 2 months camping and hiking in California and Oregon. That trip was a blessing in so many ways. We reconnected, reaffirmed our marriage and our hopes and dreams, and had an amazing time out adventuring and overcoming issues we didn't even know we had. We became an even stronger couple.

That fall saw us back in Florida, wondering what our next move should be. I applied for jobs all over the place, and eventually landed an interview in November with the US Army Corps of Engineers in Vicksburg, Mississippi. And once again, Jay up and moved for me. We sold our little house in Florida (which we'd been renting out with Jay's mom's help for the past 3 years) and bought a home in Mississippi. We moved in on March 5, 2007. We didn't plan to stay long (maybe 2-3 years), but as I hit my 2-year anniversary with my new job, we had our first baby. James Henry Lindsay IV was born on March 3, 2009. Later that summer, Jay was able to switch positions at work and join a new team (he was also working with the Corps, joining on back in August of 2007, after a temporary "mini retirement"), which made him so much happier. And he started talking about going back to school. Then, in October, we found out we had a new baby on the way. Not to be deterred by worries of late nights and extreme parenting (2 under 2, and 2 in diapers!), Jay applied for graduate school and was accepted to the Distance Education program at the University of Florida. Cora Mae Lindsay surprised us yet again and showed up 3 weeks early on June 14, 2010. Since then, life has been busier and happier than ever. We are very grateful for the life that we are living. In fact, the only thing that we would change, if we could, would be to have family nearby. We're still a bicoastal couple, after all, and now that we live in the middle of the states it's an even greater struggle to manage enough vacation time and funds to see both sides of the family. So we don't see them nearly as often as we'd like. Hence the purpose of this blog - to keep our family and friends up to date with the happenings in our family. So thanks for reading!

And just for fun, here are some photos of us over the years:

2003