True Life: You can date and be a 1 parent family

After the break up, all I could think was "This is it". I believed there was very little chance that I could meet someone as a solo parent. The solo parent was not a life I had planned, or was prepared to handle on my own. I was prepared to make the best of it. Expecting that this would be the way things were for at least the next five years.

For just about a year, I sat alone in the evenings, watching Facebook and wondering what others were up to. Occasionally chatting friends, but mostly watching NetFlix online. On an extremely rare occasion, I would get a night off to blow off some steam with friends.

I checked out Match.com. Signed up for the free trial week. Unfortunately, the psychobabble you read...the part that advises you about creating your profile...scared me off. If I write this, it really means that...what?!? It was officially over, for a while at least. I would be a strong single woman.

Being a strong single woman is what I dedicated my time to. Working to provide for my young daughter so she would never look back and feel she was slighted by me. Our living situation was not ideal, I did not have a ton of money, but we were both happy, healthy, and safe. We would overcome this and have a better life. Only time would tell.

After a long, hard, day at work -- Mother's Day to be exact -- I get a facebook friend request from someone accompanied by a brief message introducing himself. At first, I was completely skeptical. I had no idea who this guy was and why he would find me of all people. Then I thought, "sure he can be my facebook friend but it will most likely not be anything more. He's way to old for me". We facebook chatted for a few days and then had a phone conversation. I agreed to go out to dinner with him, thinking, "a free meal? why not" still thinking of him as Jessyca's Dad since his daughter had been in my mom's class the year Katelyn was born.

He picked me up and brought me a coloring book since I hadn't been feeling well that week. He said it is what he and his daughters would do when they didn't feel well. It was in a princess gift bag and came with a set of crayons. Very cute and thoughtful.

Nice dinner and great conversation. He took me home and then we decided to go back out to get a drink on the Downtown mall, I didn't want to invite him in for a drink. I wasn't prepared for that. We talked for a couple more hours. Then it hit me, he wasn't Jessyca's dad anymore -- he became Eric. He saw me as a person, not just Katelyn's mom as I had been getting accustomed to. He genuinely listened to my tragedies, failures, hopes, and dreams. The one evening felt like a week of conversation.

Believe me, I know this all sounds ridiculous and cheesy. It was an amazing summer, luckily I have my parents nearby to baby sit on occasion. Although we both have children, we work diligently to make sure we have time for us outside of time with our kids. So far...the future is bright. It has been an amazing 5 1/2 months.

Here's to the future...