Almost a year ago now, I made the decision to uproot my life completely and live in a way that brought me immense peace and joy. I fell madly in love with the road and all of the fellow nomads we met serendipitously along the way. Keller was already experiencing so much more than I had by his age, yet still there were numerous roads to be traveled.

In September, we made the drive home from coast to coast to spend a couple of months visiting with friends and family. The plan was to do a little work on the van and visit until the holidays at the very latest. Honestly, I was eager to put rubber back to the road pretty quickly. However, the Universe looked down at me and smiled her motherly, all knowing smile as if she knew something I didn’t. And boy, did she.

Not too long after our return, I stumbled into the path of a blue eyed, curly headed, Stetson wearin, soul sharing, gigantic hearted man. Our spark was undeniable from the moment he first took my hand and dragged me onto the dance floor. It soon became common to find us dancing barefoot under the carport or in the yard, in the kitchen making our morning coffee, or even in the car while attempting to follow along with Keller’s crazy dance moves. No one can keep up with that kids moves. But sitting right beside me, you’ll find Dewayne bobbing his head and waving his arms in every direction, even if it’s never the right one.

No one has ever come into my life so completely full of love and given it so freely, not only to me, but my child. I have watched for months the friendship these two have curated before my eyes. And let me tell you, it is not such a simple task for a man to befriend a boy completely uninterested in sharing his mama. Yet, Dewayne was patient and persistent at all the right times. It didn’t take long before these two loves of mine were racing scooters at the park and picking me flowers off the side of the road together.

There have been times in the past where I believed I knew what love was, but I was wrong. I’ve made many mistakes, had so many uncertainties, and been faced with so many challenges along the way. These experiences created new insights for me that put me in alignment with my values and ignited a new self love. It is now more clear to me than ever how important it is for us to wholly and completely love ourselves individually before we are able to share that love with someone else.

So unwilling to part, Dewayne and I spent hours and hours attempting to envision the future we would have with me and Keller on the road and him in Tennessee. Some of our ideas were brilliant while others were extremely laughable, but none of them would really put us anywhere near one another for months at a time. We both knew we were going to make this work no matter how and we both knew that we weren’t going to allow the other to sacrifice their dreams to do it.

We finally decided that together, we would all stay in Tennessee for the time being. If you’ve been one of the ones to notice the lack of my adventure tales or everchanging landscapes, here is your why. I fell in love. Deeply, soulfully, honestly in love. I have found a partner who is the truest of counterparts and has dreams sometimes even madder than mine. Our travels have and will continue sporadically, and there are even talks of another van project in the near future (which I cannot WAIT for, duh!)!

But for now, I want to leave you with some other news. You see, this man I found would wrangle the moon for me if he could. I know this without a doubt in my mind. So when he asked for my hand on Mother’s Day (I knew he wasn’t wearing his dancing shoes), I didn’t hesitate not a once because I’m damn sure his is the melody I want to spend the rest of my life dancing to.