The Story of Us

So many of you have been dying to know how Adam and I met. Well, it's not that grand, so don't get your hopes too high...lol. What is more important is the backstory of where we were before we started dating and how we got here. We are both hopeless romantics (shhhh he will kill me if I tell you that Rom Coms take a tied place for his favorite next to Alien and War movies hahaha).

Most of you guys know my story prior to Adam... but in case you don't here's a little snippet: I had married my first love and we were married 5 and a half years when he left this earth unexpectedly after an eye surgery (correcting damage done in an accident 9 years prior) for his home in heaven and was healed. I would be lying if I said I didn't struggle in my dating life after that. I waited nearly a year and a half to even entertain the thought of sharing my life with someone other than our freshly adopted teenage son (and our 90 farm animals). Adam and I had a mutual friend and I knew about him 2 years prior to when we started dating, however he had a son and I was NOT ready to become a step mom- in fact I ran from guys with kids at the time. It just wouldn't have worked in that season of our lives.

Fast forward 2 years and Adam had just become a dad for the second time to a little girl this time. He loved being a dad, and while it's not my story to share, it wasn't under good or sweet circumstances. It was extremely challenging. And his greatest dream was to have a complete family. This was also a time in my life that was really a struggle. I was dealing with a lot myself and was really over the idea of putting myself out there. The fall of 2021 went by and our focus was on getting through the messiness of our own lives- recovering from extreme difficulty. A few months later, I really felt the push to put myself out on some dating apps again. Call it crazy if you like (I did), but every one of my closest friends had met their husbands online and I was arguing with the Lord over it, and I relented. If' I'm honest, I was really being a smarty pants when I got on Bumble. And to my surprise, there was Adam... AGAIN!

I remembered him, his sweet face, and the love I knew he had for now both his kids. And, I was in a different season of life and almost started looking for a man who was already a dad. The rest is history. This time, I was ready to be his partner and a second mom to his littles, if it was meant to be. And it was easy. We went rock climbing, went out for sushi, talked more about our dreams and goals in life, and spent 7 hours together for our first date- we didn't want it to end. We had been getting to know each other for a while and it felt like we had known each other our whole lives. When he introduced me to Grayson, his 4 year old, we flew a kite together. Shortly after, I got to spend the weekend with his daughter too. He had just switched from night to day shift and it felt like it was a total God thing to be having so much time to grow together- all of us!

I was very limited about how much Jesus I "vomited" on him- as it didn't serve me well in past relationships (in my experience guys would just pretend to be closer to the Lord than they were just to appease me). I did let him know that I wanted my family in church, and he and the kids started to attend with me. He had grown up very early on in the Catholic Church but hadn't been in YEARS. I really just followed the Holy Spirit and I was just myself. I listened intently and made sure I didn't push my beliefs on him.

In mid May, he happened to have the same eye surgery planned on my birthday that my late-husband had had that took him home to heaven. It was scary and a healing all at the same time. On May 29th, Adam asked Jesus to come into his life and was saved- with no help from me at all. I had always prayed as a young girl to get to be part of my husband's faith journey and watch him be baptized. I had never talked to Adam about baptism, but on the same day God put it on my heart that Adam would be baptized, I got a message our church was doing baptisms and Adam mentioned wanting to get baptized in the future. We signed him up and he was baptized in front of our entire family in Charlotte at Elevation Ballantyne. Watching his faith grow the past year has been the most incredible part of our relationship. His love for the Lord is uniquely his and it's so beautiful to be his wife and his help mate.

We decided early on into our dating that we wanted to spend our lives together, but our life was less than simple with our circumstances. We decided the first step was to get married. So, we told a few close friends and family and we formally and simply got married. Then we shifted our focus to our home.

We wanted to build a home but that would take too long. In the economy of summer 2022, buying a house wasn't a small task as the market was really high for buyers. And, we needed a place that fit all 5 of us- our 3 kids (who at the time were almost 18, 4, and 1) plus our 4 animals. It was more important for us to get our family under one roof than to have a wedding or anything extravagant. Plus our kids were just in very different seasons and it seemed right to just focus on blending our lives than a ceremony. We talked about it very openly and decided we wanted to start sooner than later to make a more stable home life for our kids- not to have to split our time with each other, each kid, and in separate homes and have a united family life. It was time to find the right place. So, we did. We found a place with a separate apartment for Freddie to have his own space as he finished high school and became an adult, and room to roam for the littles. Freddie could join us as he wanted and it wasn't forced into a big brother role and it was the perfect mix for him. He loves Grayson "G" and Adalynn "Addie" so much and pitches in for dinner and making the kids laugh and entertaining them at his pace.

Read part 2 here about our wedding and honeymoon details!

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We so enjoy sharing my life alongside you! We are so grateful to each of you reading and being a part of our life and our story! We hope to be part of yours, too! And, we'd love to connect.

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Finding joy in every season,

Lauren Alonso