I'm also really excited that we have no real plans this weekend.
Last weekend we took a little drive to Coronado, which is one of mine and Dylan's favorite places in San Diego, and took a three-mile walk around the ferry landing. It was so nice walking down the street with our beautiful daughter and our adorable new pup.
I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to write about this morning, but thinking about last weekend and in that previous sentence where I called Ella both Dylan's and my daughter, both of those ideas are pulling my mind in a particular direction.
For everyone that knows me, they know that Ella is not biologically Dylan's daughter. She is his daughter by choice.
I guess this would also be a good time to introduce the beginning of Dylan's and my relationship and even before that time, seeing as how it all fits together...
I had not always had the best of luck, or taste rather, in guys growing up. I made my fair share of mistakes and suffered my fair share of heartache because of them. But despite all my poor choices, in January 2009, I was blessed with the most beautiful daughter in the world, Ella. Just to prove how adorable she is, look at this...
These is from ages 1 1/2 to 2 1/2.
And these from about 2 1/2 to the present.
I told you she was pure cuteness! Anyway... back to business.
When Ella was born I was convinced I was going to be spending the rest of my life alone. After all, who on earth would want to help me raise a daughter who was not even theirs? I tried my best not to think too much about it, continue moving forward with my life, and do my best to accept the things I could not change. I learned life's biggest lesson during that time: Positive thinking creates positive results. Life went on, and there was a smile on my face. I was beginning to fill that hole that was left empty inside with other things.
On March 17, 2010, I met this guy, Dylan. We shared a night of laughter and conversation which I tried not to think too much of because again, I swore I was destined for spinsterhood. I told him though, on the night we met, that Ella was the biggest part of my life; no need to hide such pertinent information, just in case he wanted to run away screaming like I thought he might. In the following week he asked if we could spend more time together. I told him that would be great, but that I had this little thing called a side-kick that would have to join us and that wasn't a problem for him. First of all, he wanted to see me again, and the fact that I had a daughter was NOT a problem?! Okay, someone pinch me, wake me up, something. This could not be real.
After an amazing afternoon at the beach a few days later, laughing at Ella doing all the little, silly things she seems to always do, I guess you could say the rest is history.
Over the past two years I have watched Dylan transform from a complete stranger into "Daddy." I never gave him that title because if Ella was going to call him that, I wanted it to be because that's who she sees him as, not just what he's called.
It still gives me chills to think that my life ended up this way. Having a child, especially at the young age of twenty-one is life changing. As every mother knows, regardless of your age, it turns your world upside down. Luckily for me, I am not only sharing my crazy world with Ella, but also with a man who loves her as much as I do. For any person who willingly takes on the responsibility of someone else's child and does it with passion and a genuine interest in becoming a key role model in their life, my hat goes off to you, to Dylan, and all the single parents out there who have opened their hearts to a real love in their life as well as for their children.
Ahhh... what a sigh of relief. It's Friday AND I was blessed with a man who takes care of OUR daughter like there was never a day in his life that she wasn't his.
<3 Dylan, you are a man with a rock solid character. I wish for every single parent in the world to experience a love from another like the love you have given Ella and I.
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