The Journal

Media Credit: Courtesy of Melissa Jenkins Melissa Jenkins, Webster University student and expectant mother, poses with her husband Matt Jenkins, who is on his second tour in Iraq.

Melissa Jenkins does not back down in the face of a challenge. Taking life one day at a time is how the soon-to-be mother handles a full-time job, graduate school at Webster University and the recent departure of her husband for his second tour in Iraq.

"It's tough," Jenkins said. "You just get through it. You kind of have to live day to day."

Jenkins, 30, is a project manager for Negwer Materials, Inc., in Ferguson, Mo. She is also pursuing an MBA at WU's Winghaven campus, where she attends class one night a week and is very pleased with her experience.

"I love it, I really do," Jenkins said. "I've liked all of the professors. Everyone seems very professional. I'm learning a lot, which is great."

Jenkins grew up in Perryville, Mo., and is the oldest of two girls and two boys. She moved to St. Louis seven years ago to pursue her career. Jenkins' younger sister, Sarah Flentge, said she admired Melissa while they were growing up together.

"Melissa is an amazing person and has a wonderful personality," Flentge said. "She is a great role model of strength and perseverance. She is very dedicated with a great work ethic and is calm but outgoing."

Indeed, Jenkins stays busy to keep her mind off her husband's absence.

In addition to working and going to school, she enjoys reading suspense novels, staying active at the gym and planning "sushi nights" with her sister.

"We have tried to master the artful culinary skill of making sushi," Flentge said. "She loves to cook and is excellent at it."

Jenkins spends most of her time preparing for the arrival of baby girl Katherine Isabel, due May 12, 2010.

"I'm looking for daycares and trying to pick out baby furniture, baby gear, everything you need," Jenkins said. "My sister is going to help me paint the baby's room."

Her husband, Matt Jenkins, 28, is a Staff Sergeant and Radio Chief for the 3rd Battalion of the Marine Corps Reserves.

In May, he went to California for training and near the end of September his unit left for Iraq. Jenkins finds it hard to be separated from her husband for the second time.

Matt Jenkins' first tour in Iraq was in 2004. A lot has changed since Matt's first Iraq tour in 2004, Melissa Jenkins said.

The bases have undergone rebuilding, and Matt Jenkins has his own office complete with payable Internet access so the couple is able to stay connected despite the thousands of miles separating them.

"I kind of thought that things were going to be different this time, you know, because I've already done it once before," Jenkins said. "It's still hard. It's never going to be easy."

Although Jenkins has had to face most of her pregnancy without her husband, she has support from family and friends, whom she speaks to over the phone on a daily basis.

In addition, the Jenkinses communicate often through e-mail and phone calls. Melissa said she is supportive of her husband's decision to be in the reserves.

"I'm proud of him for doing what he does," Jenkins said. "It's not something everyone can do. It's a sacrifice he chooses to make."

As for the arrival of baby Katherine, the entire family is very excited.

"You have no idea the level of excitement," said Jenkins' mother, Brenda Templemeyer. "We've been anticipating this moment for a long time. They had kind of put their family plans on hold, but God has a way for making things happen when we least expect them."

Jenkins is equally enthusiastic about being a mother for the first time.

"I'm very excited," Jenkins said. "Matt was so excited, and his excitement made me excited and now I just couldn't imagine it any other way."

Templemeyer has no doubts in her daughter's ability to manage everything.

"She's a self-starter, in the fact that she can stand on her own two feet," Templemeyer said. "She's got a lot of faith in God and why our country is where we are and she draws on that in times of difficulty."

Flentge said she has always admired her older sister and sees her as a role model.

"She is a great role model of strength and perseverance," Flentge said. "It really takes a commendable amount of strength for both a Marine and a woman to endure a trial of separation such as theirs."

For now, Jenkins' focus is on the soon-to-be newest addition to her family. Her greatest hope is that Matt will be home for the delivery.

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