Our Beginning

Jake and I usually try to avoid telling the story of how our crazy, wonderful life began.

We're no longer ashamed, however the judgement is something we are over dealing with because we dealt with enough of it in the beginning. So it's easier just to skip the major details and say "we met, we got married, had two kids, and here we are!"

And that's true, however some pretty important components are missing that really give a greater insight to who we are and why we are the way we are.

Jake and I met when I was 17 and he was 16 (I know, I'm robbing the cradle). We were actually on dates with other people. A guy at school had asked me on a date and I begged my friend to come with us and bring a date herself because I didn't know much about this guy and dates like that can be awkward.
She brought Jake, and it turns out we liked each other more than we did our dates. So we became friends who occasionally talked, but he was so attractive I thought he was way out of my league and wasn't interested. Until he asked me to prom.

(Weren't we adorable?)

Then we started dating. Our second date was to see the Pixar movie "Up" We fell hard and fast that summer. I would work, spend the rest of the day at his house, then we would pretend I left and he would go to bed and I would drive down to the bottom of his property and he would sneak out and we would spend the night in a clearing until just before dawn when he would sneak back in and I would go home and go to work. That's how we spent the summer until I moved away for school. Then we would talk every night until I fell asleep on the phone as he sang to me. I eventually dropped out due to monetary issues, and moved back. Then we were inseparable again. I got my old job back and our days continued as they did in the summer, except this time we spent the nights in my car to keep from freezing.
We were crazy about each other and nothing else mattered.
And that's when we got ourselves into trouble that would change our lives.

Our physical relationship escalated and I became pregnant. He was 17 and I was 18.
It was terrifying. I remember driving to his house the night I found out. 5 different pregnancy tests were sitting on the passenger seat next to me, judging me the whole 30 minute drive. I replayed all the different ways I contemplated telling him. I wondered how he would react.
Would he leave me?
Would he want us to put the baby up for adoption?
Should we put the baby up for adoption?
Could we handle being parents?
How would we take care of a baby?
Questions spun around in my brain like they were being tossed into a blender.
He snuck out and met me in my car, and I told him. I don't even remember how I said it. We sat there in silence. He then showed me his true character.
He didn't freak out, he didn't call me a whore and say it wasn't his, he didn't tell me to get an abortion, or tell me we were over and that it was my problem like I have heard happen to so many others.
He told me he loved me, and that everything was going to be okay, that we were in this together, and we would figure out the right decision. Relief doesn't even begin to describe how I felt.

So then we told our parents. Of course, they wanted to know what we planned on doing now.

We knew we loved each other, and that eventually we wanted to get married. And we couldn't stand the thought of adopting out this baby and then eventually starting a family together, knowing our first child wasn't with us simply because we were too selfish to change our lives to take care of it earlier than we had planned.

So we decided to get married. 3 days after Jake turned 18 and three months after we found out I was pregnant, Jake proposed to me with a scavenger hunt of clues leading me to him waiting in my room with a bouquet of my favorite roses.He played the guitar and sang me a song he wrote himself and then got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. It obviously wasn't a surprise, but the gesture was beautiful and I loved it.

2 months later, on May 22nd, 2010 Jake and I were married in the rain on his parents farm. It was a beautiful little wedding, with family and close friends to witness the beginning of the rest of our lives together as one.

We would spend the next year and a half living in his parent's basement while he went to the local community college working on his associate's degree. During that time, our son Kaiden would be born and we would begin our adventure as parents.

And that is the story of  how my own domestic life began.