Prince Charming

"You know that you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams" Dr. Suess

I'd limped through my second year of college, barely passing my classes. I had a good reason though. He was about 6 weeks old and kept me up day and night. The feeding, laundry and panic of being a new mother didn't allow time for studying and cramming for exams. I wasn't alone thankfully. Living at home with my parents meant I didn't cook meals or have a house to clean. I would experience that joy in about 6 years when my second daughter arrived. I figured out nursing and spent many nights sitting in the living room where I had grown up, feeding an insatiable baby and wondering what people my age were doing. They were travelling the world, partying and going to school. It was about this time when the disappointment in myself really settled in. There is something about those wee, lonely hours of the night that give you too much time to think about the mistakes and regrets. I was disappointed that I had somehow become a statistic, a 19 year old teenage mother and I felt I was smarter than that. I promised myself not to get sidetracked again.
The summer before, when I had first found out I was pregnant, I was a summer student. I finished the summer, off to have a baby and engaged to be married. The baby couldn't be "called off" so he arrived in February but the wedding was scrapped, as was the guy.
The summer job was available again and although Jared was only 2 months old, I headed back to full time work. Again, my family was supportive and my Mom took care of Jared while I was at the office from 7:30-4:30 everyday. My Dad and her had fought about me returning to work. Mom said I needed to be home caring for my new baby. Dad said I needed to work because that was what I was going to be doing the rest of my life to support this baby.
There was this boy at work who was on the other side of the office. He was very kind because the summer before, when I had horrid morning sickness, he would bring me crackers at my desk. We weren't really friends but we chatted. Summer #2, I found out he loved babies. When I say he loved babies, he asked me everyday for Jared updates and wanted to see pictures. One day my Mom and Jared stopped by the office to say hi and this guy, who I worked with, ran out of the office and literally grabbed Jared out of his car seat. My mother was not impressed. We'll call that 'foreshadowing." We started eating lunch together, had a golf game with friends and he came with me to buy a car seat. Have I mentioned he was 19?? It was at that dinner that I realized he was relationship material. He changed Jared's diaper so I could eat my dinner. Prince Charming had arrived on the scene.
If I had known then, what I know now, I wouldn't have spent so much time being worried about if I was making another mistake. We were married about 2 years after that summer. It was incredibly unfortunate that things started off so badly but I'm sure those first few years were weaving us together in a way that we couldn't be torn apart.