Bethany Decker liked to dream big.
Writing a letter to her future self, aged just 19, she laid out her goals for her dream life.
She wanted to get married and have children, alongside a bright career and travel around Europe.
As a freshman at George Mason University in her home state of Virginia, she met Emile Decker.
The pair quickly fell in love and after three years together Emile proposed.
And not long after this engagement, in 2009, Bethany gave birth to a son, before tying the knot with Emile later that year.
By age 21, she had already achieved the first part of her letter, and the couple seemed happy.
Only neither anticipated the strain of being a young family. And when the pair faced financial struggle, Emile enlisted as a national guard in the
