Our story started with just being friends playing an online game for a couple months. We met April 28th, 2016. We did the long distance thing for awhile. I want to say I fell hard but it was more of a controlled descent. We walked into love together. Being older and having children and other responsibilities made us look at things differently. Made us look at each other differently than if we had met 15 or 20 years earlier. I moved to Indiana from Alabama in January 2017. Seeing each other on a more regular basis just showed us even more that we never wanted to be without each other. He has always done sweet, random things for me. He brings me treats at work. He kisses me every morning before he leaves for work or texts me good morning beautiful on mornings we don’t wake up together or when are apart. I can’t see how my life would be without him. He brings me a sense of peace that no one ever has before. He says I bring him a sense of adventure that he hasn’t had in a positive way before. I’ve always felt that relationships are a partnership. We definitely balance each other out. We are a team. We want the other to be the very best version of ourselves. Not to change each other but to enhance. We both feel very comfortable just being who we are together. I think he was surprised how much I wanted him to be himself. With or without me I’ve always wanted him to be happy. He had an opportunity to go to an event for a weekend with One Time Hunt Club. A turkey hunt. Fully funded weekend. He had never been turkey hunting. It sounded amazing. Then he realized when it was...

...The weekend of April 28th, 2017. Our first anniversary weekend. He wasn’t sure how I would react. He didn’t know if he would have to talk me into being ok with it or if he wouldn’t be able to go at all. I love to surprise him. Total shock and awe. Or at least thats my goal. I told him I thought it was awesome and I would never want him to miss out on something he wanted to do for himself. Luckily I got to go too and it was a nice weekend. He got a turkey and we met some great people that would become more like family. We got our first apartment together in July 2017. We thought we could easily make it work with all of our kids for a year. We did but it was rough. A two bedroom apartment with my daughter full time and his two boys and daughter part time. I don’t know what we were thinking. I’m so glad that’s over. This past year living together full time has helped us get some kinks worked out. We have also learned other things we need to continue to work on. One thing I love is that I can’t ever stay mad at him and he doesn’t let much bother him. Most of the time we are in our own world being happy together just being us. Our anniversary weekend this year we wanted to go back to the turkey hunt event either to enjoy or just help out in whatever way we could. Seeing everyone again and being treated like family again made us feel like we were just going home, surrounded by our people. I guess being there and being with me makes Gerad feel at home because that’s when he decided to ask me to marry him. On April 28, 2018. We had a nice day. He went out turkey hunting for a couple hours. I got to sleep in. We went to shoot some skeets and have lunch with One Time. We went to see a movie and drove around a little bit. At the dinner concluding the weekend, he was one of several who talked to the group. But at the end of his speech he says, “oh yeah, one more thing.” ...

...He pulls a little box out of his boot, gets down on one knee, says some things that I can’t really remember because I think I was in shock, then he says “Aubrey Marie Norton, will you marry me?” I said, “of course you know I will.” In front of everyone. That was it. That’s when we began this journey to marriage. We had already decided to be together for the rest of our lives but a wedding is something we want to do for us. Most of our life is filled with doing for others. Being in service to God, to our country, to our family, and to our community leaves little room for just us. <#US> Nothing would make us happier than having our family and friends join us to eat, drink, and be merry(ied!). We will be posting more details moving forward.