The Road That Led Us Home

We didn’t have a plan — just love, a couple of bags, and a promise that we’d figure it out somehow. Everyone said we wouldn’t make it. They told me I was crazy for leaving everything behind for someone who was still fighting his demons. But I didn’t care. I loved him, and at that time, love felt like enough.

The road wasn’t easy. There were nights we had nowhere to go, days when it felt like the world was against us, and moments when I wasn’t sure if love could really survive what we were going through. He was struggling with addiction, and I was holding on to a dream that sometimes felt impossible.

We moved from place to place, chasing peace we couldn’t seem to find. Every time we thought we’d settle somewhere, life would throw us another storm. I cried a lot in those years — not because I wanted to leave, but because I didn’t know how to make it better. I saw the person he was behind the pain, and I kept believing that one day he’d see it too.

And then, in Florida, everything started to change. He made the choice to get clean — really clean this time — and I watched him fight his way back to himself. It wasn’t easy, but it was real. For the first time in a long time, I felt hope again.

Not long after, we took a trip to New Hampshire to visit some of his family. That trip was special — it was where we got engaged. I remember that moment like it was yesterday — after everything we’d been through, we stood there promising forever to each other. It felt like a brand-new start.

It was supposed to be just a vacation, but while we were there, something unexpected happened. He got a job offer, and it felt like life was opening a new door for us. So we stayed.

The only downfall was that none of my family lived there. We were halfway across the country from Georgia, where both of our families were. But we were happy — building something new, creating our own little world together, and finally breathing again after years of chaos.

Then, I found out I was pregnant.

That’s when everything truly shifted. I wanted our baby to grow up surrounded by love, by family, and by support — the things we didn’t always have when it was just the two of us trying to survive. So we decided to move back to Georgia, ready to grow together and finally build the peaceful life we had always dreamed about.

Now we’re home — really home. We have our little family, the kind of happiness we used to only imagine, and so much love around us. Sometimes I look at us and think about how far we’ve come — the pain, the fights, the nights we didn’t think we’d make it. But we did.

Becoming a mom changed everything for me. It’s like all the pain, all the nights I thought we wouldn’t make it — they suddenly made sense. When I look at our baby, I see proof that love really can turn broken pieces into something whole. Every smile, every tiny hand around my finger reminds me that we didn’t just survive — we built something beautiful from the hardest parts of our story.

We found our way.

We built our home.

And we learned that love isn’t perfect, but it’s powerful enough to change everything when you don’t give up on it.