Our Love Story-Happy Valentine's Day Eve!!!

Aurelien and I have quite the romantic love story...We met in 1997 when I went to NYC to be a nanny for his cousins.  When I arrived at their home in Manhattan, Aurelien answered the door.  It was love at first sight for both of us.  We had a whirlwind romance, the way that 19-year-olds do, in short, we were desperately in love...we got engaged and he bought me a stunningly beautiful ring.  Alas, we were star-crossed for reasons that I'm not going to go into on this oh-so-public domain...anyway it's all water under the bridge.  We broke up and it shattered both of us.  Like really really shattered us.

12 years later, after 7 1/2 years very unhappily married to an abusive rage-a-holic, I very innocently looked Aurelien's name up on facebook.  His picture popped up, and he was holding a cute little brown-eyed baby, who I assumed was his child. (It was his nephew!!!)  I wrote on his wall, "Hello Stranger!".  He wrote back and then we exchanged email addresses and became penpals, writing back and forth almost every day.  A month later we talked on the phone for the first time, and as soon as I heard his voice my heart started beating really fast.  I thought, "Oh my!  He certainly still has a strong effect on me after all these years!"  I finally found the courage to kick my husband out for good, got a quickie divorce, and went to Paris!  It was the bravest thing I'd ever done.

When we met at the airport again after 12 years we were both so shy and awkward, but when he held me for the first time in his apartment it felt like I'd finally come home.  We were married 10 months later, emigrated to Portland, OR 14 months after that, and our wonderful son William was born a year after that.  It's almost 5 years now since I first looked him up on facebook.  I'm so glad that I did!!!  I am finally living my dream life.  It's not perfect, but it is SO good.  I couldn't be happier.  I am blessed beyond measure.