The lovestory I never thought would be mine

“A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.”

— Pride and Prejudice

the moment we met

I remember the night we met; I was exhausted after a long day at work and honestly discouraged. I was getting over a very toxic relationship that broke me and made me feel unworthy of love and I genuinely wasn’t sure if all men were awful or if just the awful men kept finding me. Not the healthiest mindset this I know but it was where I was at, at the time. Until that night.

I was picking up my girls from my friend’s house who was watching them for me at the time and while carrying them to the car with her husband we were having a conversation and he said “You know Heather, this won’t be for forever. One day you will find someone who will love you and love those girls like his own.

In my tired, hurt state I replied, “You know, it’s okay if I don’t, I’m not crazy about men right now anyways” Have I mentioned I still had some healing that needed to take place?

Little did I know, an adorable single dad was behind me walking his dog and said with a chuckle “You know, I could take that personally”. We both laughed and I replied “Oh no, I’m not talking about you, I’m sure you are great, I’m just talking about all the other guys”

We talked for a little bit and told each other to have a good night and parted ways. Little did I know that I met the love of my life that night in that little parking lot.

OUR FIRST DATE

A few months passed, sometimes I’d catch him in his driveway doing yard work and I’d wave high but other than that not too much has happened. I was so focused on keeping me and my five girls a float that I didn’t really think about anything else.

Until his daughter became friends with my daughter and wanted her to come to her birthday party. He then asked the neighbor for my number so “He could invite my girls to his daughters party” Knowing that there were definitely motives behind it, I figured why not.

we didn’t end up making it to the party but him reaching out with a invitation started a whole new conversation of us getting to know each other, talking about Jesus, single parenthood and day to day life. We often talked about legacy and desiring to live life to the fullest after so much hardship. Until one day our text messages took a turn in the best way when Dylan asked a question.

It was the easiest yes. I couldn’t explain it at the time but I knew that He was different.

He was safe, consistent, predictable in the best way. He never left me hanging, never left me wondering.

Instead, from the very beginning he made his intentions known and never left me second guessing. He was always quick to respond and would let me know if he would be away from his phone so that I wouldn’t be left hanging.

And I’m finding now even in the very beginning his intentional actions were healing me.