Our Anniversary: What we want for the future

Our anniversary is today. One year ago, I made the trip to meet him at a bus station, and drove him back to my place. It was our very first meeting. And, very unlike anything I had ever done. Have you not read our story? You should. Read first how we met, and then our story of our first night in part one and part two.

The plan was simple: he would visit for three weeks so we could get to know each other in person, and then I would go with him back up to his home and meet his family and we would decide our next steps. Of course, should things not work out, there was a bus home at any moment. Two weeks later, he asked to move in with me. I said "probably not." It was too soon, too fast. I was crazy about him; I loved him. But move in together after only 2 weeks?

And then I thought about him not being there. And how hard it was to wait for him to come and visit me. I didn't want to say goodbye.

Three days before he was to return home, he asked again. I felt so vulnerable. I told him, " You can stay, but don't break my heart." I started crying a little, so scared it would end up with me being burned by another man. He pulled me into a gentle hug, and whispered a promise in my ear he would never hurt me. I nodded my resolve to take a chance, open myself up, and said yes.

And today, it's been one year. We are so happy together we pretty much ooze love around each other.. we can't help it! From the start we agreed we wanted to be to have an entire year together before we discussed the "next step." That led to the introduction to the famous "Rule" which we started breaking last November, and in March we completely dumped it altogether. Enough time had passed, we knew: this is it.

I asked the boyfriend what his favorite moments from the past year were. His answer: "Every moment is my favorite, honey. It's been the best year of my life."

I have some special moments that I remember fondly, but in so many ways he's right. It doesn't matter what firsts we've shared or how awesome sex was last night; what's important is that we shared it together. We've fought, cried, laughed at, and shocked the one another. But nothing has ever caused us to think this was the end.

The main reason I started tweeting last October and then blogging in February was my excitement and happiness. I couldn't stand to not share our joy with someone! The world needed to know! I wish I could share with our vanilla world, but all I can hope is that our friends and family are experiencing some joy in their lives as well. It's been wonderful to share, and I can't wait to continue sharing.

The future! We are so excited for the next step and have started talking about engagement, rings, marriage, children... we see it all before us. Next month we move into a house about three times the size of our current apartment. It's just the beginning of the next stage of our journey: our home.

I asked him what he wanted for the future. He said: "House, marriage, children (born or adopted, it doesn't matter to me), a life together."

That's exactly my answer, too.

Happy Anniversary, to us.