I never dated until the end of high school, thought I would be alone forever. You know how all your friends had boyfriends, but you didnt? Ya, I know that feeling. John and I met on facebook, yup thats right! I was 17, he was 20. Our first date was watching the new twilight movie in the theaters and then going to walmart to pack a shoebox. The thing that drew us together from the beginning was dirtbiking. Thats all we ever did, cruised around in the country, finding areas to ramp. I drowned my bike in a little 2 ft creek once and I will never here the end of that, yup, had to call dad to come pick up the bike! All I wanted to do was hang out with John. We went snowboarding, sledding, taught him how to skate. He is from Texas, I guess they dont skate there haha. We went on a missions trip to Minot ND, went to Winnipeg often, cause what is there to do in Winkler??
We went out country cruising often, took the camera with and snapped pictures at any abandoned place we could find. That is were our love for photography started, although back then we had no clue what we were doing haha. We dated for 6 months and then he proposed to me on graduation day, right after I said yes, I asked him if he asked my dad for his blessing haha!!
We had a 1 year engagement, while that make seem long, we liked it. We slowly planned the wedding and saved up money for it. We were able to buy our first house on Crystal Crescent in Winkler (which we have moved from, never should have done that, but you live and learn). The sellers were not accommodating for the move in date, I think we bought it earlier spring, our wedding date was June 21st 2014 and we had possession of the house in August!! So we needed a place to live for a month, and good luck finding somewhere that doesnt require a 1 year lease. So guess where we chose? My grandparents basement, yup rent free but it was still just a bedroom and bathroom, so for that month, working full time, boy did we struggle with food, we pawned a lot of meals off our parents and ate out a lot.
Our wedding. It was a great day, looking back, there are so many things I would change. First of all, first look pictures! I so wish we would have done those before the ceremony, I think it helps you relax a bit before you get in front of everyone. When I was walking down the isle I could not even look at John or I would have bawled like a baby, so for that reason first look pictures could have taken care of the tears. I walked down the isle to "Beautiful in White" by Westlife, I still to this day love that song, it brings back all the memories. Another thing I would have changed was the time we had our photos taken, I think the ceremony started at 2pm and by 4:30pm we were taking pictures, I wish, I wish, that we would have done evening golden hour photos, not late afternoon. The sun was so harsh and it was evident in the photos!
After Trevor was born in 2015 we listed our house in Winkler for sale. We wanted to live more of a country lifestyle, or so we thought. We moved to Darlingford (30 min west of Winkler) in 2016. We built a shop and loved the massive house and .57 acre yard. Lots of people told us not to move out there but for none of the reasons that we ended up leaving for. First thing, the snakes!! Tons and tons of them! Secondly your house insurance is through there. Our heating bills were insane. So in 2017 we decided to move, there were no affordable houses in Winkler so we had to buy a duplex in Morden, we moved 1 week after Kiera was born. We did enjoy living there, it was a cozy home and we loved our neighbors. We wanted a house though, not a duplex and we wanted our kids to be in the Winkler school system. So in 2020, we moved back to Winkler. Everyone says we will move again but nope! We love it here!
We have now been married for 6 years, every year gets better and better. We had Trevor a year after marriage and Kiera 2 years after that. Its funny, I always wanted 2 kids and a boy first. God must have heard my prayers. When we found out we were pregnant (with Trevor) we found out the gender, so we knew we were having a boy. We named Trevor after Trevor Brown (you can hear about his story on youtube, he was interviewed by The Color). The way I always saw him with his head up, just loving God. John saw it too and we knew that we wanted to name our son after him. For Kiera, I choose her name in grade 9, I loved the name Kiera and said that one day when I had a daughter that would be her name. We never found out the gender while I was pregnant with her, we left it a surprise and boy was that hard to wait but so worth it!! If you are not sure whether to find out the gender of your baby or not, don't! It is worth the wait and such a great magical moment.
Our story would not be the same if God were not in the middle of it! Doing devotions and praying together has shaped us. The knowledge we have, has helped us to grow. We lost our selfishness when we had kids and have had to learn patience. Listening to worship songs and spending time together is all we want to do! We are best friends and lifelong partners!
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