Once upon a time...

Once upon a time there was a young girl growing up on a farm in south central Iowa. She was the youngest of the three children and enjoyed the good life. She had a large and supportive extended family and a very close immediate family. Family ties ran deep regardless of the long distances that sometimes had to be traveled to see eachother. The girl was raised in a household of strong faith and a lot of laughter. In her teen years she worked a couple of odd jobs to make a little extra money and went on some youth group trips--sealing her faith. After high school she moved off the farm, got a job at a new hardware store in her new town, and started college, studying nursing, which complimented her caring nature and compassion for others.


On the other side of the Missouri river, a young boy was living a similar, yet different childhood. He lived near the city of Omaha and spent his days riding his bike and looking for a little mischief as most young boys do. He was the second of 3 children. In his teen years he excelled at football and ROTC, earning the reputation as a perfectionist with a big heart. After high school he crossed the Missouri into the great state and began his college career studying Mechanical Engineering. In his small amount of spare time, he worked at Menards.

This is where their paths crossed. There, in the back aisles of the Millwork department between customers, unloading inventory, and the occasional strong man compititions (back when we chicks didn't care that it was strong man instead of strongperson) slowly but surely a romance blossomed. Within 2 years they were planning a wedding. The wedding was lovely and the couple began their life together and with the young man's young daughter.

The years were good to them. They graduated and moved to the Mississippi River valley to begin their careers and continued their marital bliss. Close contact was kept with their respective families and many joys were celebrated...the birth of nieces, the purchase of their first home, and settling into an ideal church family to name a few. Along the road they also grieved the loss together of 2 grandfathers and a grandmother. In one particularly devastating year they lost a sister and a father. Near the end of that year they learned that the year would not end in sadness. Though the past had held loss of life, the future showed much hope for new life in the form of a baby due in August 2010!!! After 9 1/2 years and counting of marriage, life was still good and they couldn't be more excited to continue on in their journey.