Our Love Story

     I've been dreading this day for two weeks.  When I found out I was pregnant I had planning on surprising Brad with his first Father's Day cards today; one from our unborn baby and one from me.  When I lost it this day seemed only to represent everything we couldn't celebrate.  But a few days ago I realized that today is also our seven month anniversary.
     To clarify, I'm not trying to have a baby with a man I've only known for seven months.  Brad and I met about two and a half years ago on a dating site.  I don't know what it was about him but as soon as I saw his picture I knew this was someone special and reading his profile confirmed it.  We had both just gotten out of relationships and wanted to test the waters.  So we talked, and texted, and FaceBooked for over a year.  I had boyfriends and breakups and he helped me through it all.
     One night after another bad break up Brad stayed up all night while I sent him what must have been hundreds of texts about how hopeless I felt.  I told him about the impossibly high standard my parent's had set for me, about the incredible childhood they'd given me, and how I just wanted to give my kids that same life.  I went on and on all night and Brad never stopped answering my over emotional texts and always reassured me that I could have my dream if I didn't give up.
     A few weeks later we went out for the first time.  We started going out about once a week to watch my friend's band play.  I wasn't sure if they were dates or not, but I had a lot of fun.  After a couple weeks he asked invited me to a party. I was pretty sure this was it, a real date.  I was excited and nervous all at the same time.  Unfortunately, the day of the party my best friend found out that her boyfriend had passed away and I obviously couldn't leave her at a time like that.  So the date was off.
     For some reason we didn't speak much after that.  I went on living my life.  After about six months I'd gone though a series of events that sent me to rock bottom.  I'd stopped going out with my friends. I generally stayed in my apartment and felt hopeless.  I thought back to the last time I'd felt so awful and remembered that long night when Brad had stayed up with me all night letting me get out all of my frustrations and fears. I instantly remembered the feeling I got the first time I saw his picture and it finally clicked in my head.  THIS was the guy I was supposed to be with.  I never really knew why we hadn't tried harder to date before, but I think it was because I still had too many mistakes left to make.  But at that moment I knew those days were over.  I was going to spend my life with this man and I needed to talk to him NOW.  I sent him a message and we started talking again like we had never stopped. 
     We started meeting for karaoke every week at the bar he frequented with his friends.  One night we closed the down the bar but still weren't ready to part ways.  So we walked around the city until sunrise asking each other random questions to get to know each other better.  We did the same thing a few weeks later when he met me for coffee.  That night we ran out of the comfortable questions and turned to the grittier, difficult topics.  In the early hours just after sunrise Brad held my hand for the first time and my heart almost beat it's way right out of my chest.  That is one of my favorite memories of us.
     In those early days we tried to come up with ways to express what being together felt like because it was so different than anything we had felt before.  Brad quoted Dr. Seuss.

      That really describes us better better than anything else.  How lucky am I that I found someone whose weirdness is so compatible with my own?  I can't wait to see where our weirdness takes us.
     XOXO