Being pregnant and single was lonely. There was no one to share all the ‘pregnant moments’ with, the first kicks, the ultrasounds, the baby names, guessing the hair and eye colors. Even though I knew what I was signing up for, it was extremely lonely and depressing.

So I signed up for online dating. I didn’t know how it would work, or if it could work at all while I was very obviously pregnant, but I figured I had nothing to lose.

I received a sweet message one night. His profile was intriguing, but the site’s compatibility algorithm only gave us a sixty percent score. I was also concerned because he was from Venezuela, and the stereotype I subscribed to at the time said that men from South America were like the men I had dated from North America — chauvinistic jerks. At that point, I’d had plenty.

I continued to chat with him, though, giving numerous excuses as to why I could never meet in public. After I had my daughter, I was a bit busy recovering from major surgery (c-section), and didn’t have the time to reply to his messages and I ignored my online dating profile.

In December, when my daughter was close to a month old, I received a very sweet Merry Christmas and Happy New Year message from this man. His sweet persistence got me thinking that it might be time to reach out to him and see if anything would happen. I had told him I had a daughter, but never told him her age, which was obviously a shock once he realized I had been pregnant while we were chatting (and it explained my absence).

He admitted he was still legally married and in the middle of a divorce. We both had some ‘baggage,’ as some people call it. We took things slowly: one date a week while my mom babysat.

It was nice dating someone who treated me well. He met my daughter when she was four months old, and I met his parents. We traveled together as a family, and after a year of dating, I moved into his house in the suburbs. A few months later I missed my period (which was strange since I had a copper IUD), and I prepared myself for the worst. I ate all the chocolate in the house, and was an absolute emotional mess as I thrust the pee-stick with the obvious “PREGNANT” written for him to see.

He grabbed the test from me, looked at it a minute, and stood up to embrace me with tears in his eyes! This wasn’t the reaction I had expected!

Exactly one year later, we married at the romantic, bohemian bar where we had our first date.

It was perfect.

Some days, I’m still in shock with how my life turned out (is turning out). I met my perfect match, and he means the world to me. At our first anniversary party, we announced that my husband was adopting my daughter, and was officially her legal father. I never thought I would be one of those happily married, monogamous, ‘family people,’ but it happened.