Ten Years Ago Today . . .

. . . on an excite.com message board called The Shark's Den:

Whozat: I've just read all the messages here and I feel like I "know" everyone, so I thought I should introduce myself. I'm 29 and questioning.

Shrike: Whozat, questioning what, exactly?

Whozat: Well, it's a long story, so fix yourself a cup of coffee, sit back and listen . . .

. . . and the rest, as they say, is history.

I had completely stumbled upon the Den that evening, through a long, convoluted seried of searches and clicks, and I don't know what possessed me to actually post - something I'd never done before.

I don't know how I ever managed to find my way back there the next evening, to see that someone named Shrike (what the hell is that?) had replied, and I don't know what suddenly made me comfortable enough to post that long reply (not shown above), telling the whole story of how I came to be not just "questioning," but lurking - and posting - on a lesbian message board.

I do know that it set in motion what were probably the craziest, scariest, most exciting, most bizarre, most intense few months of my life, and I also know that it was the best thing that's ever happened to me.

I'm not a big believer in much of anything supernatural, but I have a very hard time fathoming that it could have been just chance that we not only ended up on the same message board, but that she was the very first person to reply to my very first post.

From those very first posts, there was just an immediate connection, an immediate attraction, an immediate need to spend every possible moment "with" her - first exchanging message board posts, then emailing, then on the phone, and six months later - finally, thank God - in person, when she moved to Texas to live with me.

And since then . . .

In the past ten years, we've been through career changes, and periods of unemployment, and cross-country moves.

We’ve lived in a tiny 2-room apartment with the shower in the living room, and we’ve bought a beautiful home together. (Thankfully in that order!)

We’ve raised two puppies together, and we’ve fought over who has to clean up after “my” cats.

We’ve been on family trips with the in-laws, romantic weekends for just the two of us and, believe me, a few downright awful vacations that we’d both prefer to forget.

We've joined each others families, and with them we have celebrated births, weddings, graduations and milestone anniversaries. We've also grieved the deaths of loved ones, some expected and merciful, some shocking and tragic.

And now, we are hoping to embark, together, on what may well prove to be the biggest adventure of our lives - parenthood.

If someone had told me all of this ten years ago, I never would have believed it.

These first ten years together have not always been easy, but I believe that everything we've been through has been a necessary step along the path to where we stand today.

And where we stand today is a pretty damn nice place, and I'm sure glad we're standing here together.

Happy anniversary, Sweetheart.

I love you.

And I always have.