How and where did you meet your partner?

1- I love his kindness and generosity towards me and everyone in his life. I love his sensitivity and patience, and his commitment to family. I also love his dorky, nerdy side.

2- We met on Plenty of Fish of all places... Our first date was at a Wetherspoons. Yikes. I deliberately dressed down and wore no makeup because I wanted him to see me as he'd see me every day, not in 'date mode'. He wore a new ironed shirt that was far too small for him, and fancy shoes. I ran over to him and hugged him. I also fell down the stairs at one point. I had to explain that yes, all I ate was chicken nuggets and I liked it that way.  Bet he didn't think this was his future wife.

3- I don't really experience physical attraction to people I'm not really close to. I am demisexual so it took a while before I experienced attraction to him physically, but I did notice his lovely smile when we met in person for the first time. In terms of personality, it was his manners and gentleman-like behaviour! He had a 'leader' quality about him, I immediately felt safe and accepted in his presence. It was nice.

4- Only in the way that a new relationship can take over your life (in a good way!) I found it hard to gage how much contact we should have (in the beginning) and how much we should message/talk. I struggled to process and deal with intense feelings of love which I'd never experienced before meeting him.

5- 7.5 years. We've been together since I was 18 and he was 23. We're happily married and planning a family. :)

6- It has had its easy and challenging times over the years, but it's pretty good. We actually broke up for a while about 3 years in, because our communication had gone down the toilet and I was totally burnt out. We're in a constant learning process, and since finding out I may be autistic, a lot of things are starting to make sense and we've doubled down on our efforts to understand each other.

I feel immensely lucky to have met my husband.

Uplifting, real-world story, warts and all, with some pragmatic truths. Your kids, when they arrive, will have struck the parental jackpot, I reckon. 

Uplifting, real-world story, warts and all, with some pragmatic truths. Your kids, when they arrive, will have struck the parental jackpot, I reckon. 

Thank you so much, that's really kind of you to say.