Kristin was the facilitator of a Divorce Care Class at church, Richard joined the class late in the program. He was one of the most talkative people in the class, Kristin couldn't help but notice him. The class broke for the summer. As the leader of the group, Kristin wanted to make sure all knew they could reach out to her at any time over the break Fast forward to the end of summer, Richard reaches out to Kristin to find out when class is starting up again. She, unfortunately had to let him know that the church had discontinued the program. She connected him with another group that was starting up in the area. Richard asked "are you still open to talking over coffee?" And that was the beginning of US. Well, sort of.... We began to meet regularly for coffee & conversation. This time Kristin was able to get a word in edgewise, even sometimes talking more than Richard. We shared many stories, many laughs, and even some tears. We shared from our hearts about going through trying times and how the only way through is to rely on God. Our faith in God was very evident to one another. This created a bond between us where we felt incredibly comfortable with one another. One day, talking on the phone Richard asked if Kristin drank anything besides coffee. Being the smarty pants that she is, she replied "well sometimes I have milk with my cookies" That's when we made plans for what later we realized was our first date! Meaning we had to have our friends let us know that we were dating one another as we were having so much fun we didn't realize what what actually happening. In hindsight, it is clear as day, God was doing some incredible work! We truly believe that He placed us in one another's path at just the right time. We have been together ever since - enjoying the laughter, growing together in our faith and still every once in a while sharing in some tears but always knowing we are in this together and we have the GREATEST Captain leading our way!

As you all are aware, we have both experienced "the big wedding day" in earlier chapters of our lives. We are not focused on "the day" but rather on our marriage and life together. And our life together includes a whole lot of kids! It is very important to us that each of our seven kids feel the love and commitment we have for each other and the love and commitment we have to our family - all 9 of us! Because of this, we are having an intimate wedding ceremony where we will be alone with our children, the pastor and God. We want this time to be special and to focus on us as a family. However, we do want to celebrate with each of you! You all make up our much bigger family! So we are excited to share that with you - just in a non-traditional way We want to invite all of you to a reception - come on now, that's just a fancy word for a big ol' party! Please come celebrate with us!