About 5 years ago Facebook was around, but Myspace was still all the rage. EVERYONE had a Myspace. You could do really cool things like change the background, and put music up. Of course there were also the normal things such as descriptions about yourself and pictures. There was also a section about your relationship status. I was VERY clear in that section that I was absolutely not interested in dating anyone shorter than me. WAS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! My friends and I would spend really exciting Friday nights browsing through profiles of young eligible bachelors just daydreaming about the really cute ones sweeping us off our feet.
February 11, 2006- I was getting ready to go out with the guy I was dating at the time. Killing time by checking my Myspace, when I noticed I had a message from someone I didn't know. It was a pretty boring message, "Hey, you seem cool, message me if you want to chat sometime." Not exactly the kind of message that knocks a girl off her feet and makes her swoon. I clicked on the link to look at his profile. He only had one picture, nothing to exciting... and WHOA, wait a minute, he was only 5'4". BUT I was still waiting on my date, so I just wrote him back. Ironically when my date ended up showing up I was in the middle of doing something else and said, "Hold on just a sec. Travis". Needless to say, my date's name was not Travis, but he was apparently still in my mind from our brief Myspace conversation.
Over the next few months Travis and I would talk online, normally in the morning when I was getting ready for school and he was getting ready for work. Nothing ever to exciting, just normal chit chat. I would often give him advice about girls he was dating and we jokingly planned our wedding. I believe it include such exquisite things as red barns and pig roasts. There was never any intention of meeting.
Fast Forward 5 Months
One night all of my friends were either working or out of town. I actually didn't have to work and had nothing to do. Travis also had nothing to do that night, so he suggested we meet for dinner. I was skeptical at first. My mother had pounded in my head that all men that were online would end up slicing and dicing me into small pieces. I had just recently moved into my own apartment at the beginning of that year and was still feeling rebellious, plus BROKE and really wanted a free dinner so I said, "Sure". We planned to meet at Cheeseburger in Paradise that night. It was a good first date, nothing to out of the ordinary, but nice. He was definitely 5'4" BUT I wore flip flops so it wasn't as obvious. Conversations ranged from teaching, to insurance, to midget porn. You know, just your normal first date conversations. We said good night and I figured we would still talk online but who knew if anything else would come of it.
2 days later I got a call from a slightly inebriated Travis inviting me to go out to Broad Ripple with him and some of his friends. Again, because I had nothing better to do I decided to go. Little did I know at this time, he was actually supposed to be meeting another girl that night for her birthday, but in his Budweiser induced state, called me instead. We went out that night, had a great time, and have talked or seen each other every single day since. After only 2 weeks we decided to be official "boyfriend/girlfriend", were engaged almost exactly one year later, and went from joking about our "wedding" to planning our real wedding. (I'm sorry to say there was not a red barn or pig roast at the actual wedding.) I do honestly believe that I had to have that 5 months of just talking to Travis (and not meeting him) to truly fall in love. I had very large trust issues and being able to become friends and learn about him in a very laid back way enabled me to be open to the love that would develop once we actual met. I am grateful for those 5 months because without them, I'm not sure I would have been open to having Travis in my life. I also feel that someday I will look back and realize that I needed this 2+ years for some reason before we were blessed with a child. (At this point I'm not clear on the reason, but I'm sure it's there.)
So back to the sign that I must have hanging in my nursery. I never thought I would fall in love. I didn't think it was something that was ever in the cards for me. I couldn't imagine myself wanting to spend forever with someone else. I couldn't imagine someone else wanting to spend forever with me. God obviously had a different plan though. He brought two people together and they fell in love. Originally that sign has a basic meaning of because Travis and I fell in love, we had a child. We wanted to turn that love into a tangible object. While the sign does still have that meaning, it is so much deeper now. "ALL because two people fell in love" Everything we have done over the last 2 years was ALL done for that child. The kid won't know as they are carried into their room ALL the meaning behind the sign, but I will. I want to see that sign every single time I carry the child into the room. I want to remember ALL that we have been through and know that it all started with just two people falling in love, and a random case of Myspace stalking.
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