After meeting on the Tinder app while I was on travel for work, our mutual non-stop text messaging for about 96 hours allowed both Michelle and I to describe who we were, ask questions of each other, touch on what we want (and don't want) out of life, a partner, and a relationship. I had only been on Tinder a few days and wasn't really expecting much, but figured it would be a decent way to meet people. Wow!! Six months later, as I'm writing this and happily engaged, it is absolutely surreal, wonderful, and my soul is so much more joyful, happy, and comfortable about where I’m going in life. By the time we had our first date on 11Feb2018, we both had a very strong connection and it felt that we'd known each other for 25 years. It is very difficult to describe. I can only recommend to our single friends that when you get this feeling, then I highly recommend embracing (and challenging) the person, following our lead, and do what we decided to do from the get-go... Commit! Go All In!!—Both Feet!! The water is fine! As one of many tests of personality (since you really don’t know who you are talking to on a dating app), I'd actually asked Michelle if she was okay with a first date at The Waffle House... a traditional staple of 24-hour breakfast in the Southeast. Of course, she called my bluff and agreed that a Waffle House date would be perfectly wonderful. Of course, in the end I decided this woman was highly worthy of a much nicer venue, though looking back on the way we interact, Waffle House would have been great and we'd be laughing about it for the next 35+ years.

Our first date occurred at the waterfront dock at Shem Creek, SC....a beautiful saltwater marsh/creek with a wonderful long dock, shrimp boats, and restaurants. As I knew I'd be traveling for Valentine's Day, when I met her in the parking lot at her car, I had a small box of chocolates and flowers in hand. Though she accepted nonchalantly and placed the gift in her car before walking towards the dock, I'd barely took 100 steps when she turned to me with a loving embrace and a huge kiss!! Wow...I done good. So we spend an hour or so on the dock, taking in a pleasant late-Winter afternoon on the dock...talking/laughing….and discovered this woman is a REALLY good kisser with beautiful teeth! As we walk back, we pose for the selfie-pic of our smiling faces with a shrimp trawler in the background and decide it would be very nice to split a pound of fresh peel-and-eat shrimp at a nearby restaurant….It’s amazing how many conversations we’ve had about shrimp in the last six months; in fact, a beautiful unique print by a family friend of two shrimp tied together with a wedge of lemon fittingly has made its way onto our wedding invitations for all to enjoy. Our life is full of the seemingly small, but very important, symbols of our love. But, as in life, sometimes we don’t get what we want…though we don’t have to be happy about it. This little touristy restaurant that we’d never would have visited, except that it was on our path that evening, was unable to prepare a pound of peel-and-eat shrimp for us that night. A sign of a fake Charleston seafood restaurant, as a shrimp trawler was literally parked in their ‘front yard’! Ahh….but it still makes us laugh when we talk about it.

At the table in the little touristy restaurant without peel-and-eat shrimp, we sat for four hours sipping on beer and fiddling with an order of fried green tomatoes. This is where we discovered the Jason&Michelle Bubble… This bubble for us seems so comfortable and full of positive energy we, at times, don’t even realize we’re in it. Though our bubble is so recognizable by our family and friends that as we enter it, their eyes start rolling and we hear them say, “There they go again”. They waggle their heads and try to find something else to do. Rude? Maybe, but after many conversations, we have decided this is OUR world! For it is good, and when we are in our bubble, we come up with great ideas, laughs, giggles, and kisses….so it must be good! Some of the best and greatest ideas we’ve discovered occurred during this first several hours of ‘Bubble-Time”. We decided to write down phrases of our agreements to each other. These are ours and they are precious: “I’m not going anywhere without you” “Together, both feet” (somehow this changed to AllIn-BothFeet) “Every day is a Date” “Just be your true self as I will be with you” “You are perfect for my non-perfect self” “Love, respect, appreciate, and honor each other” “Unlimited, passionate kisses” “Honesty” “Communication” “Laughter – Lots of laughter” “Dating & Flirting daily” “Never get quite on each other”… this is actually a typo, but it fits very well. The actual agreement is “Never get quiet on each other” and this also fits very well, so we kept both. “Affection” “Never take each other for granted” “Patience” “Forgiveness” “Hugs” “Dancing in the kitchen…or wherever we want” “Touching above the shoulders – and below” “Keep me busy” “Challenge me” “Be a strong woman, always” “Teach me how to be a really good man” These are the foundations of our love and relationship. I refer to them frequently. I fail often, but she helps me up and starts anew. I am totally and completely in love with Andrea Michelle!!

After writing down our agreements, we realized we really do have something absolutely amazing, and we needed to keep true to these foundations. Michelle set up an account on a family website and we decided to start a journal. Each time something positive or negative occurs in our relationship, we write it down in our journal. Our journal is amazing to read, as it allows us to relive the best and worst moments of our relationship. Though positivity far outweighs negativity in this journal, it is helpful to re-experience both. It’s fun to relive the milestone events, or the funniest stories, or the times we’ve stumbled full of doubt and worries. It’s full of complements, affirmations of love, little pieces of wisdom and insight which we’ve discovered about ourselves and each other. Moments like when Michelle wrote, “Thank you for coming into my life. Thank you for making me smile like crazy. Thank you for making me happy.” And moments like when Jason said, “The times I need you the most, I push you away the most.” We upload special pictures like our kissing on the Mattaponi River just after I proposed. Great accomplishments of us working together to paint and prepare our future home. Michelle’s occasional essays which are so very sweet and special and create that gentle pressure on the back side of my eyes and with warm feelings rising from my soul. If you want to fully understand your relationships, keep a journal of all the highlights AND all the speed bumps. We will both agree OUR journal has helped us more than words. “Strip your soul and undress your thoughts. Bare your heart and uncover your aching bones. Go on and jump. I will be there to catch every piece of you. I will never let you fall, let alone fall apart.” — Lukas W. // I will be there