Today our love and commitment turns 12

Our wedding day in San Francisco - but years after we met.

Today Luiz and I are celebrating 12 years together. We’ve come a long way together, literally and figuratively. But I don’t think either of us has had a second thought about being a couple since the first night we met (well, actually it was in the early hours of the morning – but that story is never told).

Literally weeks after we met Luiz was encouraging me to buy a ticket to Brazil and travel with him. It was May or June and he already had his ticket for December to fly home. Buy early, save big. I told him – “I might not even like you in December!” He scoffed at the very idea and said –“Just go ahead and buy the ticket. It will cost a lot more in November when you finally decide you still like me.”

I bought the ticket.

Since then we have traveled across four continents together and have come to settle in Brazil.

We are each other’s best friend. We are forever patient and forgiving with each other. And we challenge and support each other in our endeavors individually or as a couple.

We were married once in San Francisco, domestic partnered once by the City of San Francisco and once by the State of California. We had the privilege (cough) of having our relationship recognized as real by an employer of mine for the purpose of partner health benefits (we had to prove we shared a bank account, a will, and an apartment rental agreement) and have had our relationship certified as a “Stable Union” by the Brazilian government.

This morning - Luiz making a ham and cheese omelet for the two of us.

A friend once asked me: “So which day is your anniversary?” We stick with the morning I woke up in Luiz’s bed the day after we met (but that is the story that is never told).