the story of you

Dear little Josh,

Two years ago, I thought I would never have children. Never marry, never have children, and at the rate my life was going, never move out of your grandparents' house. I was 26 years old, a brand new paramedic trying to find a job, with a best friend named Melissa who had a really cute brother who didn't believe in having girlfriends.
I couldn't figure that out. What does a red-blooded, American, 25-year-old male who doesn't believe in girlfriends DO?

Well, if you are your daddy, you spend a lot of time hanging out with your sister and her best friend. You go to all the movies they go to, and watch movies at home, and go to church with them, and trail everyplace they go. And you never, ever even insinuate that you might be falling in love with your sister's best friend.
And you pick up shifts at work with her.
And you talk to her on the phone via text a lot, especially once you have convinced her that you don't want a girlfriend, so she doesn't suspect anything.
And you spend so much time with her that you forget about dating, and you simply become the very best of friends.
And eventually, once she is so madly in love with you that she can't stand having to act like she doesn't care for you anymore, you offer yourself up as a date for her little sister's wedding. And after that wedding, you privately tell her that you love her. And of course she knows you well enough that if you are telling her that you love her, then what you are really saying is that you want to marry her.

That, dear little Joshua, is what you do if you are your daddy.

And a few months later, one night in her parents house, you hand her the ring that you so carefully selected, and she slips it on her finger and whispers yes, of course I will. And she wonders if, finally, you might even kiss her now that she is wearing your diamond ring--but you don't.

And just three months after that, in the same living room where you asked her to marry you, you and her, in front of just your families and three close friends, take the vow you were waiting your whole life for. The one and only woman you so faithfully kept your heart for.
And you will kiss her, there in her childhood living room, and it is a good kiss.

And a year and two months later, a beautiful little boy comes to live with you and join your family. And he looks a lot like his daddy, and his mommy's heart is so full it could burst.

And, if you are your daddy, you all live happily ever after.

Love...Mommy