Once Upon a Valentine, Part II

So, what became of the little Valentine? Well, I'll tell you.

After I was born, and after my mommy took me home, she found out something that worried her. I couldn't eat. Not that I wouldn't, I just couldn't. My jaw wasn't strong enough for me to get enough food at a time. For a while, I was very sick and very skinny, and the doctors were worried that I wouldn't make it. But Mommy knew different. She kept trying with me, and eventually, I got the hang of things! I turned into a round little baby with big chubby cheeks and a happy smile!
I grew up in a great household, with parents and a brother who love me very much. We lived in a trailor on a farm in Finksburg, MD, a place I will always call home. We raised chickens, grew vegetables, and had various animals running around. In the summers, we'd go swimming at Cold Saturday, which has since been turned into a trickle of water that runs under the road to the Cold Saturday subdivision. The houses there are beautiful, but I miss my stream! We'd go to the fireman's carnival every year, and that's where I went on my very first carnival ride. My daddy took me on the Round-Up (or, Tilt-a-Whirl) when parents were still allowed to just hold kids in their arms on that ride. When the summers would get too hot to bear, my mother, brother and I would live like bats - we'd sleep through the hot parts of the day and get up at night. Mom would do laundry and the chores, and Ricky and I would play outside by the light of the moon. In the winter, we'd play outside at night, too, when the moon was bright enough to light up the snow. Ricky would build snow thrones for me, and I would sit like a little princess in the moon light. Mom used to call us her Moonlight and Sunshine, because Ricky's hair was such a pale shade of blonde that it looked like sunlight, and my hair was a darker color (which has yet to be indentified), and it glowed a little in the moonlight.
I started school there, first at Calvary's Learning Tree at the church down the road, and later at Mechanicsville Elementary.
When I was 5, we moved to West Virginia, to my Grandma's house in Largent. I spent my summers in the river with Dad and Ricky, and went to school at Paw Paw Elementary School. I was a good student and didn't get into much trouble. I was always on the honor roll and had good attendance. In the winter months, we would get snowed in with no electricity, and Ricky and I would spend hours building igloos and sled paths. On my first day of school at Paw Paw, I made a new best friend. Her name was Tiffany Martin, and she was in the same grade I was. She was also new, just like me. We became friends instantly, and when Mom would send me to school in the mornings, she'd watch me from the hill, and would smile when I'd meet Tiffany in her yard and we'd walk to the bus stop holding hands. Tiffany moved away later, and we lost touch, but I never forgot her, even though I continued to make more and more friends as I grew.
Years later, when I was 16, I found the greatest best friend anyone could have. He was little and red and he screamed a lot, and maybe he wasn't really mine, but the day Mathew Reece was born was one of the best days of my life. I became his K, his bath-wench, his buddy, his pseudo-mommy. That little boy, who is now 8 years old, is a huge part of my world, and has a big piece of my heart in his hand. I would lay down my life for that boy, and I wouldn't have it any other way!
In 2002, I graduated from Paw Paw High School alongside my friends, and went off to Potomac State College, where I majored in English. During my second year, I met Brandon Walker, and we fell in love. I moved in with him, continued going to school, and worked at WalMart for almost a year before I had to drop out of school. It was hard for me to leave school, but I had a family-in-the-making to take care of. Soon after that, we moved to Morgantown, WV, where we got married on September 17, 2005. We had a beautiful wedding, with almost my whole Largent family there. Brandon and I moved back to Keyser not long after we were married, and, well...things just didn't pan out for us. I was working full-time at the Mineral Daily News-Tribune and volunteering at Keyser Emergency Medical Services, he was first between jobs, then working full-time for Martin's Food Stores and volunteering with Keyser Volunteer Fire Department, and our homelife was falling apart. Brandon and I split up, after less than a year of marriage, and we went our separate ways in July of 2006.
That time in my life is one that I don't like to think about...a lot of ups and downs, rises and falls...but, in May of 2007, I finally graduated from PSC, with an Associate of Arts degree in Journalism. My scholarship had finally paid off, and while I was at work one day at Keyser EMS, my roommate Chris brought my mail to me, and I got to see my diploma for the first time. (That diploma now sits on the mantle over my bed, with all my other important things.) In August of that year, after losing my job, my car and my apartment, I went to live with my friends, The Robinsons, where I worked as a housekeeper and babysitter for their three children - Keegan, Isaac and Jasmine. I lived and worked there for almost a year before I got a new job at Hamburger Haven, a restaurant in McCoole, MD. Everyday, I'd get up and walk to work, then come home to Keyser. Brandon and I officially divorced on May 1st, 2008, and I started to move on with my life. While working at the Haven, something amazing happened.
Through an absolute accident, I met BJ Lowry, and we became friends. We talked for several months, and grew closer and closer. In July of that year, BJ asked me to move to Tennessee with him. It would give me a new start to my life, and help him with bills and rent - an equally good opportunity for both of us. Sadly, a few days before I was to move, BJ called and told me not to come. He'd decided it wasn't a good idea, and it would do more harm than good for both of us. I felt like I'd lost a friend, on top of having lost a great opportunity...and I had started to develop feelings for BJ. I hadn't lost a friend, thankfully, and BJ and I stayed in touch, even I moved home to my parents' house in Largent, with the intentions of finding a local job and staying close by. Then one day, I got a phone call from BJ that changed everything.
He admitted that he loved me, and had pushed me away because he was afraid that I would hurt him. He begged me to let him make things right, and asked me again to move to Tennessee with him, even offering to help with my trip. I agreed, much to the shock and disagreement of my family and friends, and on September 8, 2008, I left West Virginia and made the 9-hour trip to Millersville, TN, where I moved in with BJ. I met his daughter and his family, and fell in love with these new people. I can now proudly call them my family, as well. In October, I started working for JCPenney, where I'm still employed. BJ and I are doing better by the day, and we recently moved into a new house in Springfield, just down the road from his family.

So now, the little Valentine is all grown up, and what does she have to show for it? Well...

I have a mother who sees me as the angel in her eyes.
I have a father who thinks I hung the moon.
I have a brother who loves me, even if he can't really show it.
I have two nephews and a niece who love their K.
I have friends who love me despite all the random insanity I bring to their lives.
I have a families in West Virginia, Maryland and Oklahoma who love and miss me, and wish nothing but the best for me.
I have a family in Tennessee who takes care of me and keeps me safe and happy because they love me like one of their own.
And I have a man who loves me for who I am, who takes care of me, trusts me, protects me, and lets me love and care for him in return.

So, after all is said and done, I think I may just be the luckiest little Valentine in the world! I have a world so full of love that I can't contain it and it bubbles over in the form of...well, this blog! This heart may be tiny, but it is definitely full!