How I Met My Husband : Online Dating Does Work | Part 1

It is fitting to be writing about this topic this week. Only because my husband and I met thirteen years ago to this day online. Yes, you read it right. Many of you reading this probably had no idea. Well honestly, I never really admitted this to many of my friends or family only because it was still quite a new concept back then and honestly frowned upon. I think my mom still thinks I met my husband through a mutual friend. Wait till she reads this post! But I am not ashamed now. We have been married for twelve years and share four beautiful children together and five grandchildren. So I conclude that online dating does work.

Let me be completely vulnerable for a second. The dream of meeting my match in a bar was not working. Yes, I did go to bars… shocker huh? Most of the guys I did meet lied about their dating or married status, not looking for a commitment, or who knows what they were really there for. But I can tell you this, most of them were not looking for their future spouse.

I didn’t go to church at that time, but don’t think the thought didn’t cross my mind. My grandmother would say, “You can meet a nice young man at church.”

I had no luck meeting anyone while attending my local community college. Because let’s face it, I was more mature than most of them there. Most of my friends around me were married and didn’t have any single friends to hook me up with.

Lastly, I had one tiny detail about my life that didn’t allow me more dating opportunities……and that was the fact I was a divorced twenty-something year old with a child. That one scared almost everyone away.

This was me back in my single days! You think I laid in the tanning bed too much?

Until I turned to Online Dating and that’s how I met my husband.

Is the Yahoo Dating site even around still?!  I will never forget it. I was at work, scrolling through the hundreds of profiles on Yahoo, almost in desperation. For the record, yes, I was supposed to be working but instead searching for my future soul mate.  I have no excuses for that, except maybe that my dial up at home was too slow to even bother. 

This was me back in the corporate days!

I stumbled across what looked like a decent looking guy who lived an hour from me. Why would I bother with someone who didn’t live closer? I was darn sure I wasn’t going to drive to see him all the way in Chatsworth!!! I had lived in Georgia all my life but never heard of a name like Chatsworth??!! Sounded like somewhere in the boonies!!!

I have no idea except his profile struck me. Not his actual photo because it was a terrible picture of him by the way. It was what he said in his bio. “My daughter is the apple of my eye” …..awwwww…. Clearly, he had a daughter. Well, no surprise I had a son. From my experience, singles who had children were not great fish to catch in the dating world back then.

I reread his profile at least a dozen times. I remember asking my co-worker if she thought he was a good looking guy? I couldn’t tell. The quality of the pictures back then were horrible (can’t you tell) I should call this post “Throwback Thursday” instead.

Well, aside from whether he was cute or not, he checked off most of my boxes of things I was looking for in a husband. Yes, I actually had created one of those lists. Stable job √ already owned a home √ ambitious √educated √ loved kids √ wanted to grow his family √ drove a truck √  Yes, my future husband had to drive a truck. 

So I took a chance. Out of all the profiles, his stuck out to me the most. I paid the twenty-something dollar monthly membership fee and sent him a message. This allowed me to leave my email in hopes he would respond back.  To my surprise, he responded that night! Boy, oh boy, was that fast.

…And the rest was history….

What.. Wait… You can’t stop there..

Well, you will have to come back and read part two of my story and find out why our first date night was a disaster. Now it’s your turn.

Did you meet your spouse online? What was your experience like?