Love.

In the Fall of 2009, Lauren's parents were living abroad at the time in Africa (Angola) and her younger brother, Matthew, decided to attend boarding school at Stony Brook School in Stony Brook, Long Island. With his parents so far away, Lauren (who was living in New York City after recently graduating from college) stepped in as the unofficial parent for Matthew, which included things like visiting SBS for parent-teacher conferences, and most importantly, cheering for him at soccer games. Shortly after Matthew transferred into SBS, Lauren started receiving emails from the varsity soccer coach asking for permission for Matthew to participate in their offseason soccer program. Needless to say, the soccer coach was Johnny. For several months, emails were sent back and forth between Lauren and Johnny, simply to communicate logistics and scheduling related items. Neither had any idea of the age or life circumstance of the other. On Saturday, January 30th, 2010, Lauren travelled out to Long Island to watch one of Matthew's indoor soccer games. This was the first time that Johnny and Lauren laid eyes on each other. It didn't take long before we both knew that there was something special between us, and after one evening date in NYC in early March, we began officially dating on March 13th. Not without first asking permission, of course, from Matthew to date his soccer coach, to which he replied, "Well, it looks like I'll be making the varsity team!"

After a nice time with the Schneider Family pre-Christmas 2016, we traveled back to Bedford (Massachusetts) to be with Johnny's family for Christmas Day. Johnny's birthday happens to be on Christmas Eve, and we had just finished singing "Happy Birthday" to him. Once Johnny blew out the cake (with 34 candles on it!), Johnny asked if he could say something. He reached into his pocket, and for a brief second, Lauren thought, "Oh my gosh, is he about to propose?!" She was NOT expecting a proposal. But instead he pulled out a sheet of paper, and her proposal thoughts were quickly dashed. Lauren thought he was going to do a rap he had written, for those of you who know Johnny, this is not an unexpected occurrence ;) Instead, Johnny said that he couldn't wait until tomorrow, Christmas Day, to get his Christmas wish, and then he began to read the following: “Marriage hath in it less of beauty but more of safety, than the single life; it hath more care, but less danger, it is more merry, and more sad; it is fuller of sorrows, and fuller of joys; it lies under more burdens, but it is supported by all the strengths of love and charity, and those burdens are delightful.” - Bishop Jeremy Taylor After choking up several times reading this, he finished. Then he proceeded to pull out a rather large ring box (which ironically got stuck in his coat pocket, creating an awkward silence in the room). Don't believe it got stuck? There is video to prove it! Once he got it out, Johnny got down on his knee and asked Lauren to marry him. I think you know what Lauren said....of course she said "Yes"! We're so excited to share this next chapter of our lives with you! Can't wait to see you by the bayou in March!