My journey through SL has been an interesting one. Even though I "started playing" SL back in 2007, I probably only played a total of 30 days from January 2007 to September 2009. I officially came back to SL September 15, 2009 and stayed ever since. That was my beginning and this is my confession.
If you were to ask me if I'd ever be a family man in the game when I started playing again, I would have said 'no'. Sure I could
have a family - a kid there on the side, being cute and that was that, but it wouldn't be anything more. I wouldn't have gone above and beyond what normal '
friends' do.
Perhaps I should explain my hierarchy in that, for me, family is the highest level. You have strangers on the bottom, acquaintances on the next level up, friends on the next one higher, best friends, and then family. Family always comes first - that's what I always say. So in SL, back then, a 'family' would not really be a real family for me. It'd just be a fake, casual one on the side.
But that perspective has done a complete 180 on me as soon as Nevy and I became a couple. What was once a game or platform to have fun with friends became a real connection that will help harness and provide growth to our relationship until we can be together. The realm I was in before being together with Nevy, I came to realize quickly, was not going to fly. I was not comfortable with it while with her and I think it's because of amount of love and devotion I have for her. What Nevy and I have is immeasurable, incomparable to anything else I can even imagine. It's just raw and complete connection. We're in sync with each other (the vast majority of the time). She is my life.
What we pride most about what we have is the feeling of being entirely natural. There is no rush and things will come together eventually if it is meant to me. That is why we like to take things slow and use the time in between to enjoy it all. The topic of adoption came up several times through the course of us being together, but so did the topic of being ready and the wish of things coming naturally.
We went into MAW with the mind frame that we wouldn't just settle on a kid - that we would be very picky. We wanted the perfect one who would provide the balance of our family (or as some would say - the peanut butter to our jelly). And we were okay if we couldn't ever find our perfect match. So along came the countless glancing at applications and "awwww'ing" at the cute little responses kids would give.
Among the panels, our Keirsten was there. Truthfully, she was our first choice. Sadly, she was either on trial or not actively matching with the other parent panels. Whichever it was, we just couldn't match with the way things were going. We had to give her a try though.. so we reached out to her. She was the only one we directly contacted to give the trial a shot, and boy were we so happy when she replied back and was willing to give it a try!
She blew us away. We instantly fell in love with her that it almost seemed too fast and too perfect the way things were going. I had caught myself several times, wanting to ask Nevy if we could just end the trial and make it official. But we had to make sure so we gave it a few days, waiting for something to prove us wrong that maybe there would be something that came up that we wouldn't like. Nothing. We loved everything about our Keirsten.
Being her daddy has been and still is so precious, and I cherish it so much. I would go above and beyond for her, as she holds such a big part of my heart. She's my little girl..and she has opened my eyes to what a schmuck I am! I'm such a mush when it comes to her! She's my angel and I love her to bits and pieces!
The way we all are together as a family unit is something so special. The SL world I used to know (all the clubs, crude humor, random nothingness of mindless fun) quickly transformed into a stable setting of family with our angel. As I reflect on everything, I credit her for changing the lifestyles of Nevy and me for the better. She motivated us to bring out the parents in us both, and we wanted to be the best parents possible for her. She deserves it.
We quickly went from a small plot of land with a tree house to something more realistic and harnessing of RP with a bigger plot of land and a suburb house. The issue of neighborhood residents in the sim then raised alarms and we just couldn't have our angel there. So we moved and bought an even bigger plot of land and another house. I absolutely love our land, and it makes me happy that we can provide our Keirbear a comfortable family environment.
Keirsten is my joy - that ray of sunshine that makes you feel warm and loved. But our happiness does not stop with just her. Family also comes in all sizes.
Today our angel, Joshy boy, and I had a race off.. street style! For keeps and slips and all that thug stuff our Keirbear is into now ever since mommy and I gave her that sing-a-long machine with thug beats. The kids whooped my skinny behind! BUT I blame it
allll on my laggy computer *
nods* We had a blast just messing around and driving around in our angel's barbie race course, and then for refreshments, who could ever pass up slurpees! Joshy brought it to our attention that you can never trust advertisements theses days, as our slurpee machine gives out green 'cola' slurpees. *
chuckles*
I love days like these. Just having fun with family. There is nothing like it, really. We can just relax and goof off by ourselves, make each other laugh, just have fun. Family. Nevy and my fun-sized family members may be small in avi size, but their hearts are as big as the sun as it shines so bright with love. I love you, family. Thank you for bringing out the best in me.
