Our Love Story!

A little background. We've known each other since we were 10. In our school district, when you went to 5th grade, two elementary schools combined. I didn't know him, and he didn't know me. But soon we were just kids who went to school together. So from 5th grade to 12th we went to school with each other. I wouldn't say we were friends, but we weren't enemies either! He always watched out for me.... and I always knew his name. He played sports, and I was a cheerleader who cheered at his games. There was multiple times we were in the same class, same play, same sports bus rides together. But never in a million years would I of guess we'd end up together.... he hoped so!

 After high school we went our different ways. Without a single thought. A few years after high school, my child had locked me out of my car in the Wal-mart parking lot... and my battery died. I can't remember what happened but I do know that I saw him and asked him to help me. He did. And we were on our separate ways again. Fast forward 6 yrs. I had been a single mom for about a year and a half. He was recently divorced. When I say recently... I mean like brand newly divorced.

We started chatting on Facebook.... and I couldn't help but giggle at the silly things he said. He was honest..... a huge thing for me. He was honest, funny, smart, adorable....etc. But and the BIG BUT was, Yes he had been married and divorced, BUT he did not have children. In my mind I would NEVER go out with someone who didn't have kids of their own.

You see I can't have anymore children, and I would never want to take that opportunity away from someone else. Up until that point in my single life, I had only been dating men substantially older than me. I'm talking anywhere from 7-11 years older than me. In my mind, at that time, older men that were done having kids... meant stability. Boy was I wrong.

 So we started chatting, and it wasn't long til our chats became the highlight of my day. I would fall asleep thinking about him, and the first thought in my mind in the morning was, you guessed it, him! I wouldn't admit this to myself. I've always been super independent. And that thought that someone was taking up space in my head, space where he shouldn't be because things would never work with us... bugged me! Big time!!

It wasn't long until he started to ask me out. I would politely decline. I didn't want to, but in my head I had to. But he was persistent and would ask all the time. All the while I was falling, falling fast and had no idea.

 I remember one afternoon, right before I started dating him, my best friend and I sat down at my kitchen table and wrote a list. A list of things I had to have in the next guy I dated. I was sick of dating losers! So we started a list.... It went something like this:

Things I HAVE TO HAVE in a MAN!
 1. HONEST!!!!
 2. Hot
 3. Stable- Emotionally and physically and financially
 4. A great sense of humor... with a tad bit of sarcastic humor
 5. A deep spiritual connection.... temple worthy
 6. Hard working
 7. Some one who LOVES ME and MY KIDS!!!

 We wrote it down, with markers on a green piece of construction paper and taped it to my fridge. So i could see it everyday and keep myself in check. So back to our story. After he asked me out a couple times and me declining... He asked once more. I don't know why but that time I agreed. In my head I remembering thinking to myself. It will be good for him to get out, to have a conversation with someone who knows what its like. It'll be like old friends catching up. Boy was i wrong, again!

 It was a Friday morning when he asked me to go out with him that night. I lined up a babysitter, and got ready. I told him to honk when he got there... I honestly didn't think he would do it. But sure enough at 6:59, you could hear someone laying on the horn right outside my apartment. I couldn't help but laugh hysterically. I remember giving my girls a quick kiss, grabbing my purse and jacket, and walking up the stairs. And there he was. Sitting in my parking spot. I took a deep breath. Put on my best smile and jumped in the passenger side of his truck.

Then it hit me. HIT ME HARD!!!! Their sitting in front of my apartment, in a truck I'd never been in, with a boy I barely knew... it hit me! This is it!! I almost laughed out loud. Our heavenly father has a great sense of humor. After 11 years of struggling, 3 kids, a divorce, a broken off engagement, two boyfriends who cheated, and too many dates with too many people to count.

THIS IS IT!! The boy who was the class clown at school! The boy who stood up to my boyfriend in 9th grade! The boy who helped me in the wal-mart parking lot..... THIS IS IT!!! The boy who was born one day after me, in the same hospital, the boy who's parents went to school with mine, the boy who didn't have any of his own children.... still I knew... at the very second. The second I jumped into that truck. I knew... THIS IS IT! The one I've been looking, waiting, praying for my whole life. The one who was made for me. The one who would understand me, love me and love my girls unconditionally. The one who is always honest with me. The one I can depend on. The one who feels like home. Back to that list.... He not only had everyone of the things I HAD to have, but he had many many more qualities that I didn't realize that I needed. He's my one. My only. My FOREVER!!!