Melissa

Sam and I have been crossing paths since high school, but it was never the right time. Then one day, after being on an online dating web site for a while, I had decided it must not be my time and I was going to delete my account... Then I get a message from this guy (Sam),. I was really skeptial of answering back because I had not had very good luck meeting "good" guys on there. But something inside me said, "do it"! So, I replied and our first conversation, via text, was 16 hours long! We had so much in common and he made me laugh, it was hard not to keep talking. That was August 26th, 2010. We had our first date for lunch on September 3rd. What was just supposed to be lunch and a movie turned into 6 hr long date. I have never met some one and instantly felt that connection. We had our second date on the 4th, it was Tennessee's first game of the season and while we really wanted to actually go to the game we decided to go to a sports bar and watch  it on the big screen. Second date was kinda different, he was quieter and some what stand offish. So, I am thinking what has happened in matter of hours to cause this reaction... Come to find out he had a female friend that he was intending on introducing to me to see what she thought of me, so he was nervous! LOL! After the introductions everything got back to the "normal" that it had been the day before. So.. after the game we decided that we were not done spending time together... we went to a "hole in the wall" bar to shoot pool and throw darts. He finds out real quick that I have a competitive side. And I win every game we play. But it was all in GREAT fun. We had a blast. Now, Sam and I have each been married before. This is the second marriage for both, and we both have kids. He has 2 girls and I have a daughter and 2 sons. My daughter is older so she didnt live with me. Our dates were everyother weekend due to visitation limitations. We had a hard time not seeing one another in between so we started having breakfast dates. By this point we have become in seperable. We cannot stand to be apart, we talk/ text all day long everyday, except when we were sleeping, of course. You see... he worked midnight shifts and I work a normal 9-5. He would be getting off from work as I was heading into work when we were having our breakfast dates. We had been seeing each other about 8 weeks when we decided that we were going to bring our kids into the relationship. We did this very slowly because we wanted to be sure that this was a relationship that was really going somewhere. The kids had already been through too much hurt and we did not want to cause any more hurt for them. So, I met his daughters first, at this point a 9yr old and 14 yr old. He had just started getting into a real routine of getting them every other weekend and wanted to get some things for them to stay at his house. So... we took them to Walmart to get girlie things like shampoo, conditioner, hair dryer, flat iron, and a few decor things for their bed room. We had fun flitting about Walmart and picking things out. Then we went out to lunch. It was fun getting to meet them. The next day, Sam had to work. He is a police officer and wanted to take the boys on a tour of the police/ fire station where he works. My boys are 5 and 10 at this time. So, I took them down there and introduced him. He took them on a tour of the police station, put them in the jail cell and hand cuffed them! I got pretty scared cause they kind of liked being hand cuffed. LOL! Any way it was a good first visit. Two weeks later when we each had our kidos again we decided to do an outing with all of us. We go to lunch at McD's, of course, and to the movies. After that we all went to a park and played together. To our amazement the kids hit it off right from the start! You know sometimes blending families doesn't work so well. We have been blessed from the beginning.  It amazes me that it has been a year and 5 months since we got together and things are even better than when we began this adventure. I really feel this is where we are supposed to be. I have found love like I never knew existed in this wonderful man. While it will be 2nd marriages for both of us, this is nothing either of us has ever experienced. And it will be first wedding/ honeymoon for both of us. So, all of this really means a lot to us both.