That's Us

Braden

Braden... Since the day we met, we learned a lot from each other. We started wildly but it was worth it. He treats me like a diamond and it never changes. He is consistent and lovely. Faithful and loyal. He made me realize that history repeats itself when you let it repeat itself. there's a lot of things to improve, including my personal beliefs. There is nothing with personal growth. He made me see the beauty of love. He made me see my worth as a person, as a woman, and as a lover, and most especially as a human. He made me realize that things can not always go exactly to what I planned but I can make ways to make it. While loving him, I learned to love myself more. I improved a lot as a person. Our relationship was surrounded by beautiful things. we even planned for a future together. We are more than just a CEO and Investor. We made things possible for both of us. Our companies are growing and succeeding together, separately. We focused on the things that are supposed to be focused on. He loves me more than I love him and that is the most beautiful thing ever.

A YEAR LATER

I have been dating Braden for almost a year now, everything goes as I imagined it. We are not perfect but we managed to make our relationship work. I love him more than anything. Alison is living with my parents in Boston and we are in New York.

Brandon and I decided to buy a new house for ourselves. We want to live together.

I am making my breakfast when my boyfriend suddenly came and hugged me from my back, "I want to be with you every day, live with you, wake up with each morning." he said while kissing my neck as I flip the egg on the pan. I smirked and said, "What do you mean babe?" I ask and faced him. He kissed me and said, "Why don't we buy a new house around New York and live together?" He said while waiting for me to answer he took my hand and kissed it. "I want to be ready for what may happen between us, I just want you to know that I want to spend every single day of my life waking up next to you." He said with tears. I was shocked to see him crying. "Is there something that happened?" I said in a worried voice. "I dreamed of us babe, you were with someone else and I can not take it. I am scared, babe. I can not lose you. You are my strength and inspiration." He said and hugged me after. I hugged him back and said, "Don't worry babe, I won't leave you. You are my yesterday, tomorrow, and always." I faced him and held his face while looking into his eyes. I wiped his tears and he kissed me. "You don't know how much I love you, babe. I love you more than anything and I couldn't see you with someone else. I love you to death and I want to spend my life with you. Do you want to live with me?" He asked. I took a deep breath and said, "Let me think about it, babe. Do not think that I don't want to live with you it's just that, I have my life before us and I don't know if I am ready to give it all up." He held my hands and said, "Baby, you don't have to stop the life you have before me, you can stay as you are and I would love that. All the privacy that you have, all the things you want to do, you can still do it. I am here to support you at all costs. I will take care of you and marry you someday. As of now, I want to live with you and get to know you more, I hope you let us know each other more and explore things together." he said in a serious tone. I kissed him and said, " I will think about it, babe." He smiled and said, "Just tell me and I will buy a new house for us." He excitedly said, I smiled and hugged him.

After that, he started getting ready for work and I as well, I am here at his house so before I left, I wrote a letter and leave it above his table that for sure he will see once he's done taking a bath. I wrote every single word with all my heart.

Dear Braden,

I need to thank you.

You complete me. I felt empty before I met you. Empty like a piece of me was missing and I was tirelessly searching for it. I knew I found it when I met you. I can’t even put into words the wholeness that I feel every day knowing you are my boyfriend.

You are my home. You are my family. No matter what happens in our future, I am complete with you. I will go where you go. Your enemies are my enemies. Your God will be my God. Your family is my family. Your home will be my home. Forever.

You Understand Me. I feel very misunderstood by many people, but worse I feel most people don’t want to understand me. But you, you always seek to understand me. This past year was hard, for many reasons, but for one in particular – the loss of my circle of friends. You know my heart. You know that I always have the best of intentions. You understand me. You get me. I think you’re the only person who truly does. But only because you are the only person who has taken the time. You always know what I need to hear. You know what worries me and what scares me. You know my secrets. You know exactly what I need at exactly the right time. Best of all, you never pass judgment. Thank you for taking the time to know and understand me.

You Comfort Me. We’ve been through a lot together. Miscarriages. Addictions. Depression. Death. Birth. Jobs. Sickness. Despair. Moving. Globetrotting. Grief. Anniversaries. Birthdays. Beginnings. Endings. Through it all, you comfort me. You do it in a way that makes me “see” Christ in you, working through you. I’m proud of you. I’m proud of you for overcoming your strongholds. Even though a rocky, confusing time, you comforted me. Many men would have cut and run. Some men would have given up. When we lost our first baby, when I’ve gone through horrific bouts of depression, you comforted me. You may not have always known how, but I promise you... you did. Even if all you could do was throw your arms around me. If all you could do was cry with me, I promise... you comforted me. Thanks for never walking out on me when life got has me. You Are Merciful to Me. I’m choking up just typing this. This is huge and you probably don’t know that I’m aware of this, but I am. You cover my faults. You hide them. It would be easy to expose them. The world tells us it’s okay “to vent.” People are quick to share how someone has let them down or done them wrong.

But you... you don’t even bring up my faults in conflict or arguments. You spare me. You extend mercy when I don’t deserve it. While others might look at my faults with a magnifying glass, you cover me with grace. You permit me to be human. You are slow to anger and quick to forgive me. You let me “win” even at the cost of your pride. You are malleable when I am obstinate. You are long-suffering when I am insufferable. You save me from the embarrassment of my shortcomings. I notice. I’m grateful. I’m humbled. You Protect Me. Protection, real protection is such an attractive quality in a man. I don’t just mean physical protection. I mean the kind of protection that is hard. The kind of protection that shelters me from verbal attacks, criticism, anger, cruel intentions, and more. When Jack was born, we faced all kinds of criticism a judgment. But you did your best to protect me from it, going so far as to accept the “sentencing" onto yourself. I never saw you more Christ-like. After all, isn’t that what Christ does for us? He took on our sin and paid the price for us, so we wouldn’t have to. I saw you do that for me. I saw you risk everything to support me. That is love.

But also, you set me straight. You rebuke me when I need correction, thereby saving me from going down a dark path. My bipolar isn’t easy to live with and yet, you do it with so much gentleness. You protect me even from that, as much as you can. You Serve Me In the flesh-driven world, “service” to your spouse is so misunderstood. It’s thought of in feudalistic terms like serfdom or worse, slavery. But real spouses serve each other in love. As in Christ’s example, “I came not to be served, but to serve.” You go to work every day to support us. You make huge sacrifices, always putting yourself last, so we can come first. Even when you come home tired, because of my bipolar, you get up with the me every night. You have for years. I am ashamed that I can’t do that without huge ramifications with my illness. But you never complain. You do it so willingly and drag yourself to work the next day. When I’ve had a rough day, you offer to bring dinner home even though I know you’d rather not spend the money. You’ve taken our boys to the emergency room and waited for hours there by yourself. You’ve used your vacation days, not for youth for us. When we are sick, we’ll run out at all hours for medication. It’s thankless and exhausting. Before I end this, I would like to tell you that, I want to live with you already. I wouldn't mind spending each day seeing you. You are the most handsome guy in my eyes and I love you so much and It won't change. Buy that house and we will live together.

Love,

Jane