We met working for Lutheran Ground, a critical care transport department associated with Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Jillian was a critical care nurse working the day shift and Travis was a critical care EMT working the night shift. They spoke in passing and Travis and his team liked to tease Jillian about working on Medic 1 and not knowing what hard work was (each shift thought the other shift did not work hard... but we are not here to get into that debate). Jillian and Travis were both unattached at that time, it was spring of 2020, right as the COVID-19 pandemic was getting into full swing. At some point during the summer of 2020, Travis' profile on a dating app came across Jillian's screen, and she had decided at that point she would not date anyone she worked with, so she immediately "swiped left", indicated she was not interested in being matched up with Travis. They went on being co-workers, on opposing shifts for the next year until Jillian resigned to focus on completing her Master's of Nursing and becoming a nurse practitioner.

Another year passed since Jillian resigned from Lutheran Ground and had moved from Warsaw to Fort Wayne. It is now Summer of 2022. Jillian and Travis had remained connected through Facebook and Jillian saw that Travis had visited a local brewery not far from where she was living. She commented "Thanks for the invite!" and Travis replied that he had texted her but the message must not have sent due to lack of cell phone service (but perhaps it was actually because he did not have her phone number...) and they agreed that next time he would let her know if he was in the area. That was August 6th. They eventually exchanged numbers and agreed that they would get together for some drinks later in the month. The night before they were to meet up for afternoon drinks, Jillian messaged Travis, "I just want to be clear, we are only getting drinks as friends". Travis must have been on the same page, because he disclosed weeks or months later that he actually had a date planned for later on that evening. Well a few drinks at The Deck, turned into an evening out and about in downtown Fort Wayne. Travis and Jillian continued to date over the next two months, before Travis was finally ready to make it official. He formally asked Jillian to be his girlfriend while sitting at a campfire one night at Chain O'Lakes on his annual camping trip with his good friends the Gunder's/Voirol's. The rest is basically history!

Travis and Jillian took Paisley to upstate New York to meet up with Jillian's parents' at their cabin in the Adirondacks. Jillian invited Travis' parents along. They even brought Gronk (Jillian's, now the family's, dog). Jillian planned this trip and thought it was just a fun get-a-way for the family. Little did she know that a few weeks earlier, Travis had asked her dad for permission to marry her. They left for the trip late on Thursday night and drove 10.5 hours... arriving at the cabin around 1:30am on Friday morning. Needless to say, on Friday afternoon when Travis was wanting to go on a hike, Jillian had very little interest in doing so. Eventually she was convinced to go on the hike, which was about 5 miles. She was THRILLED... The hike was to some waterfalls, a trail that she knew well, as she had taken trips there on ATVs with her family many times when she was younger (and wished that they were on ATVs that day). Well, they got to the waterfalls and Travis insists that they "take a picture together" so they stop to have Travis' dad take a picture with the waterfall in the background. Little did Jillian know, he was taking a video. Travis then insisted that they get picture of their backsides facing the waterfall... Jillian thought this was weird but complied. When she went to turn back around, Travis was down on one knee with a little box in his hand. Jillian thought he was playing a joke on her (and whoever knows Travis, knows that he is a bigger joker, so it would be easy to see why she might think this) so she crossed her arms across her chest. Travis (and his parents) thought that she was going to say "No", but then Jillian looked at Travis and saw tears in his eyes and knew he was being serious. Jillian's mom and Paisley had no idea what was going on so they continue walking. And Jillian said "yes", of course!