Better Together

Lets take it back to where it all began, to that moment when a 6th grade girl (me), locked eyes with an 8th grade boy (Josh), and she knew – that’s the boy for her.

Of course, I was basing this solely on his appearance. I hadn’t even heard the sound of his voice, but I did know his full name, baseball and football position and number, and I think his birthday. I know what your thinking, “that boy better run, this girl is nuts!”, lets remember I am only a 6th grader, my skills at MySpace stalking were not quite up to par. I just convinced my shop teacher to fill me in on him, which was pretty easy since my shop teacher was his father!

In class he loved to get on me about the crush I so obviously had on his son. Let me tell you, he was not shy about crushing my dreams and telling me that I was too young and that it was never going to happen…
Well, jokes on him I mean its only 13 years later, and I’m the mother of his grandchild. I mean when will men ever understand, woman are ALWAYS right, even when they are in the 6th grade.

After becoming great friends, who had genuine love and respect for one another suddenly, things changed. Life happened and sadly our paths veered in separate directions.
Then, one day back in early 2012, just days after Josh returned from studying abroad for over a year. We decided it had been long over do, we met up and well, the rest is history!

Shortly after Josh graduated college, and I decided not to return to pursue my nursing education. We thought, what the hell, lets pack up our two Hondas, pick a place and go! So, that’s exactly what we did!
To say our families, well more like my family, was not very happy about this is real understatement! Get over it, after all I’m only moving to another state, I’m not dropping off the face of the Earth.

We picked the place, Santa Rosa Beach, Florida! We knew nothing about it, we did not have jobs waiting for us but we had hope. We did find an apartment steps away from the Gulf, which we thought was pretty damn awesome! We just had our cars, all the cash to our names and more ready than ever to take on an adventure together! We split the twenty something hour drive over two days, you have no idea how exciting it was to finally see the “Welcome to Florida” sign…thank you god we finally made it!

You better believe the first few days were like a vacation and it was amazing! I mean before we even unpacked our belongings that were shoved between our two cars, we walked right across the street, straight to the Gulf. Then after a few beach days, it was time to get serious. We spent a lot of time the first month really, figuring it out. From jobs, to finding our way around, to grocery shopping, and just overall getting used to living with one other, naturally that’s an adjust for any couple.

Somehow in our move from home to Florida, we managed to bring with us Josh’s mothers’ favorite Jack Johnson CD “In Between Dreams”. I had never in my life heard of this man or his music, but after listening to his CD EVERY time we got in the car, I began to like him very quickly. In fact, there was one song in particular that Josh and I kept replaying over and over…”Better Together”. Needless to say, this became our song (remember this!).
It was during this part of our lives where I quickly realized how true the statement “everything happens for a reason”, really is.

After several months of being in Florida, moving to a new apartment, and being pretty well settled in, life happened again…I was pregnant! Unplanned at the time yes, but an absolute blessing none the less. I had waited my entire 20 years of existence to have a baby of my own. The excitement was pure bliss, even for Josh! Though I have to admit, knowing I was going to go through this entire pregnancy without my family near by to enjoy the process with me, was a bit disheartening.

This was the kind of information you want to share with your loved ones face to face, not ideal to share over the phone, hundred of miles away. When I was 17 weeks, and the belly was near impossible to hide anymore. We took time off, packed up one car this time and headed back home to surprise our family. Not just with our visit, after being away for several months, but to share the news and gender of our new addition!
IT’S A GIRL! Her name…Brenley J♡