After our awesome first/second dates in Maine, Farmer Man went back home to Virginia. I cried when he left because there’s was so much uncertainty about what would happen at that point and I knew he was someone special. He called me on his drive back home and we chatted for a while but still, what was next for us?
I asked him if I could come visit him as I’d always wanted to visit Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg, both ‘bucket list’ places for this social studies teacher! He told me he’d love for me to visit and so I planned a trip to see him at the end of March (which was about six weeks away…an agonizing wait)!
In the meantime, we chatted on the phone every couple of days, sent funny texts, which often referenced our common love of The Office, and got to know each other more with each conversation. We discussed early on what each other’s goals were in terms of a relationship because neither of us were interested in wasting the other person’s time. I was very clear that I wanted marriage and kids and told him it was OK if those weren’t things he was ready for, he just needed to be upfront with me. I’m 5.5 years older than him and was definitely in a place where I was looking to settled down with ‘my person’. He said he was open to both and I said that if things ever worked out between us, I’d be open to moving since he was working on turning his family’s land into a farm & campground and I could theoretically teach anywhere (more on that decision in another post).
The end of March arrived and I went to visit Farmer Man for the first time. We were both a bit nervous because we had only spent 1.25 days together and hadn’t seen each other in about 6 weeks. But, we had a great time together and made plans to see each other again the following month. At that point, I’m not sure either of us knew what was going to happen between us since dating long distance is complicated, we just knew that we liked being together and spending time together so we continued to make plans to see one another over the next several months.
Our first photo together, on a ship at Jamestown during my first visit to see Farmer Man
Long weekend in Rhode Island
By the beginning of June, we decided that I’d spend my summer vacation in Virginia so we could spend more than just a long weekend together once a month. It would be our ‘make it or break it’ trial period to see what the future would bring for us. At the end of the summer, we would either decide to end things or we would decide we were in it for the long haul, having to endure long distance for a whole school year as neither of us were ready for me to move that first summer but I couldn’t up and move in the middle of a school year so if we stayed together, we would have to wait until the next summer for me to move.
With Baby Daisy on the farm last summer
Camping with my Farmer Man
The summer months went by quickly and by the end of August, we were both ‘all in’ and knew we wanted to be together. I went back to Maine to start my 15th year teaching and Farmer Man stayed in Virginia. It was really tough to go back to long distance dating after spending every day together for two months. We talked on the phone every day but some days/weeks were really tough to be apart. Our communication styles are very different, which made staying connected pretty difficult at times. We’ve been asked what the ‘secret’ is to making it through a long distance relationship and both of us agree there really isn’t one- it pretty much sucks and the only way through is a common commitment to the end goal- which is the day that you will actually be together without any distance between you.
Suffolk, Virginia Peanut Festival
With my very handsome wedding date
(I officiated the wedding of my very good friends)
Our first Thanksgiving together at my home in Maine
The only photo we got of our first Christmas, waiting for our flight from Maine to Virginia in the Portland Jetport
Celebrated our anniversary in February and went back to the restaurant where it all started!
For the next 10 months, we saw each other about every 4 weeks, give or take, me going to Virginia or him coming up to Maine, spending holidays together with our families, spending time with each others friends. We knew for sure that I would move at the end of the school year and we knew that we wanted to be engaged before that happened…turns out, not only would we be engaged but we would be MARRIED before I moved that summer!
Up Next…
A LOVE STORY PART 4: An Engagement
