Here at Fairfield County Moms Blog, we mostly focus just on the experience of the Mommies in the family. Moms are basically superheroes. However, we wouldn’t be Mommies if we hadn’t met the Daddies. Everyone’s story is different! So, in honor of Father’s Day on June 19, we bring you a brief series from several of our contributors entitled “How I Met Your Father.” Please enjoy!
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Dear Daughter,
One day you are going to ask me about love. How daddy and I met and fell in love with one another. How I left my home state to move here and start a family. Here’s my story…
My fairy tale romance didn’t happen like it was supposed to. I had everything planned out so that I would be married by 25, with my two kids by the time I was 30. When I was 24 I did get married, but we were like oil and water and after too many years of being unhappily married, we divorced. At 34, I started to look at my future differently. I realized that I might not have a family at all (thanks, biological clock). I realized that I might not meet someone who would be willing to marry someone with a divorce already under her belt. So I traveled. I went to islands and states and different countries. I wanted to find myself and grieve the loss of not only my relationship, but also of the future I had dreamt of for so many years.
But then I went to Vegas. I know, I know. It sounds pretty cliché. I can still hear Grammy warning me not to talk to any men in Vegas, since clearly I had lost all sense of judgment. I promised her that I would not be talking to any “boys” on my trip. I had just wanted some sun! Sitting by the pool with a friend, the man who would end up being your father, struck up a conversation with me. He was cute. He was funny. But he lived in another state. We had dinner together and he asked for my phone number. As I pulled away from the hotel a few days later, I wasn’t sure that he would call. I was headed on another vacation just days after.
While perfecting my tan on the beaches of the Cayman Islands, I got a text message. From him. Your father. He wanted to make sure I had gotten to my next destination safely. We made plans for dinner when I returned. He would come to NY. I had been on a few dates since the divorce and they were those awkward, clock-watching dates that never seemed to end. I was praying that it would go well. It did. I brought him for some authentic Italian in the heart of Queens. We had our first kiss outside the lobby of my apartment. I couldn’t sleep thinking about the ice-cream date we had made for Wednesday night before he went home. The rest is all history!
We got married in Vegas because that is where we met. We didn’t want a big crowd or a huge party, we just wanted to be with one another. Our wedding was just the two of us on the balcony of a beautiful hotel (by the way, Grandma and Grammy were not happy that they couldn’t be there). Don’t even think about doing this! We had dinner at a fancy restaurant overlooking the sparkling lights and drank bubbly in our fancy outfits. Oh yeah, and there was an earthquake that day. Not a big one, but it happened on the East Coast. Most of daddy’s friends thought it was because the self-proclaimed eternal bachelor had finally settled down. That was our first wedding. Because I’m a church-going mama, we got married again in the church a year later. So yes, we are really really married.
So why am I telling you this? Because one day you will envision a future for yourself. This future is malleable and it doesn’t have to work out exactly as you think it might. As it turned out, my beautiful baby girl came to me almost ten years after I thought she would. I married a man who was exactly the opposite of everything I ever thought I wanted, but is exactly what I have always needed. He is the best father and husband a girl could ever ask for.
To read more in the series, How I Met Your Father click here.
