Everything Changes Yet Everything Stays The Same

by John Flores

So if you follow us on social media, I’m sure most of you know that the love of my life has given me the greatest gift in the world. We’re having a baby!!! To be honest, at 39 years old, I had moved on from the fact that this would ever happen and I was more than happy with that. In my eyes, I already looked at Briana’s daughter as my own and she was already calling me dad so it’s not like I wasn’t a parent. And with 7 dogs and a pig to take care of I had more than enough lives to be responsible for.

But that day she told me…I don’t know that words can even describe what was going through my head. In fact, after I figured out I was looking at a pregnancy test the only thing I really remember saying is, “I love you but I’m getting really hot. I think I need a cigarette.” I was nervous, scared, happy, excited…pick an emotion and I was feeling it. I’m thinking to myself “Holy shit, you’re having a baby with an amazing woman! And she’s happy about it!!” The rest of that evening was a blur. It didn’t hit me until I drove home and those damn “driving tears” started to flow. I was experiencing a level of happy I didn’t know was imaginable. WE WERE HAVING A BABY!!!

After the initial news we had to decide how to tell everyone. Were we going to wait the standard 3 months when she would “be in the clear” which I always had a hard time of understanding. I mean, I get it. You want to make sure everything is good but if for some reason something happens and you don’t tell anyone, does that mean it didn’t happen? When I look back all the best moments of my life were always shared with someone. And as far as I know I’m the father of a child the size of a pea right now. So Bri and I talked about it and we decided that we needed to confirm the pregnancy and we were going to celebrate and share our joy with everyone!

A few things were pretty certain. I’m pretty sure my parents were accepting the fact that even though they had Bri’s daughter that was the only grandchild they were going to have. Bri’s daughter had a little brother or a little sister on her Christmas list and she had been praying and hoping for a sibling. And in one moment we changed their world, as well.

So now a new journey begins. For those of you keeping count this will give us 7 dogs, 1 pig, and 2 kids which are 10 lives Bri and I are responsible for. I will be “staying home” taking care of the family, running a business from home, helping people with their dogs, and helping to foster whatever puppies Bri wants to bring home while she will be going to work. It will be somewhat out of the norm according to society’s standards but nothing about our lives is really “normal”. We have our own normal and we make it work. I love our normal. I’m living my own real life love story and a new chapter has just begun.

I’m a son, a brother, a friend, a dog dad, a pig dad, a doggy foster, a step dad and now I will be the father of a child with my blood running through their veins. And I have a beautiful woman and supportive friends and family to share all of this with. I’m not saying our lives are perfect and I’m definitely not saying it’s going to be easy but at the same time, my search for “happy” has been more than fulfilled.

It’s amazing how all of this really started on June 3, 2012…the day I decided to take in a dog named, Penny Lane, into my life and had no clue how to take care of a dog outside of feeding them and picking up their poop.

Stay tuned for a wild ride…Everything is changing yet everything is staying the same.

John Flores

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