Let the adventure begin!

For the first half of nursing school, Gabby was a total mystery. In a place like Polk County where everyone seems to have a mutual connection, she somehow managed to fly completely under the radar. She was quiet, low-key, and—in my opinion—way too pretty to be real. I’d noticed her from day one, but she was a mystery I hadn't quite figured out how to solve. Everything changed in Nursing 3 when she mentioned she "needed someone to sit with." —I’ve never moved faster in my life… For the rest of the semester, we claimed an entire eight-person table all to ourselves. It was our own little island in the middle of the chaos—the place where we stopped being classmates and started building a future. While we didn't officially start dating until after graduation, we spent the last half of the program in a steady "more than friends" rhythm. We spent those months dreaming about the future, “studying,” over FaceTime (I was persistent at changing the topic away from school!), bonding over TV shows, and getting to know the third member of our trio and my then, soon-to-be Son, Maverick. If you know Gabby, you know that Maverick, her German Shepherd, goes wherever she goes like the lap dog he is... Whether it’s a quick run to Target or a sit-down dinner at Olive Garden, Mav is there!! We’ve spent our relationship mastering the art of the "don't mind us" stroll, usually with a coffee in one hand and Mavy’s leash in the other. I must brag.. I have it DOWN. The ultimate test of our partnership happened at Bonnet Springs Park. I managed to convince Gabby that we were on a high-stakes mission to find a lost chain somewhere in the park. True to her nature, she was incredibly determined, scouring the grounds, refusing to give up the search, and of course making sure I was looking just as hard… Little did she know, I had the only piece of jewelry that mattered in my pocket the whole time. The "hunt" finally ended—not with a lost chain, but with a ring. I’d been looking for her since the first day of school, and that day at the park, the search finally ended for good.