Our story may have started out just like any other love story, but then again maybe not. Kyle’s family is full of teachers and it just so happens that Kyle’s mother was Lianne’s science teacher in Jr. High School. Little did Lianne know; her future would be connected with her former teacher. Kyle and Lianne were both involved in their high school music department. Lianne was a freshman that played flute in the band and Kyle was a senior, playing the bass in Jazz band and Orchestra. Perhaps you can say it was love at first sight, for the second Lianne saw Kyle and all his music “awesomeness,” she was determined to get to know him. In his senior year of high school Kyle was in a band that had a few gigs many high school classmates attended and supported. Kyle reached out to Lianne on the new social media platform “MySpace” and asked her if she wanted to attend. Needless to say, Lianne made it and her friendship with Kyle began. The two grew closer and closer as friends that summer with a lot of swimming and pizza by the pool, movie and video game nights, and just hanging out with each other. The next school year Lianne asked Kyle to her junior year homecoming. Their friendship blossomed even more to where he was her first kiss.
Things started to settle down when Kyle went off to college and they went their separate ways. They each dated and loved others, but still stayed in contact by checking in with each other. Within those years they always seemed to run into each other either at the movies, at a restaurant, or passing each other’s cars on the road. The running joke within their group of friends was that Lianne stalked Kyle. Perhaps she just knew what she wanted. The two did hang out a few times as friends over the next few years, but always went on their own way. Love can be funny. There is a saying “if you love someone, set them free. And if it is really love, it will find a way back to you.”
Two years after Lianne graduated high school, in 2011, Kyle and Lianne rekindled their friendship again. This time was a little different than before. They grew closer than friendship, developing into something more. Lianne would always be over hanging out with Kyle at his house, a park, or up for an adventure driving around the town. They shared their joy of nerdy things as well as helping others. With both being Star Wars fans, they joined the 501st and Rebel Legion, which is an all-volunteer organization formed for the purpose of helping others through volunteer/charity work as well as bringing happiness and joy within the community. Members of this group build movie-accurate costumes in order to get approved for these groups. Being a part of the 501st and Rebel Legion allowed both Kyle and Lianne to give back to their community, in their own nerdy way, by bringing awareness to the different causes and charities in the Kansas City and Missouri area, and making every star wars fan (both adults and kids) excited to see their favorite characters in real life! One of their most humbling experiences together were their visits to Children's Mercy and bringing smiles to the children's faces who were receiving treatment. Kyle dressed as the star wars character, Obi Wan Kenobi, while Lianne captured the moments through her camera.
Things changed a little more between Kyle and Lianne when Lianne’s parents made the decision to move from the Olathe, Kansas area. Lianne had a choice to make. She could stay in Olathe in an apartment or move with them. Knowing if she moved, she would likely lose her relationship with Kyle and her friends due to distance. She looked for an apartment. It wasn’t until she got an offer from her former science teacher to live with them, and Kyle in their home did the turning point in Kyle and Lianne's relationship take place. It was this small moment's decision what ultimately helped the two grow even more with one another.
For nine months the two learned to live with each other, under the same roof. It wasn’t always a good time. The two shared their differences. There were fights, times they went to bed angry or upset with one another, but they learned to work together, learned to give each other space, and learned what each other liked. Knowing they both wanted to stay in the area they grew up in, in early 2014, Kyle bought a house where, with the assistance of family and friends, Kyle and Lianne made their home together. For four years their friendship bloomed to more of a relationship. There wasn’t a set day or moment in time when the two decided to take the step forward and put a label on their relationship, but they both knew they didn’t want to be with any other person. They worked together in making their home their own by building, painting, and decorating the walls that surrounded them. They celebrated and loved each other through each of their accomplishments; Kyle earning his Master’s degree, and Lianne finishing her bachelors with hopes of getting her own Master’s degree in the future. They supported each other through many highs and lows with the loss of grandparents, pets, and the birth of life through nieces and nephews.
Through all the trials and tribulations of learning to live with one another, annoying the other, forgiving each other, growing a family with three fur-kids, and most importantly falling for each other repeatedly, every day. On December 25, 2018, Kyle made a scavenger hunt throughout the home they made together. At the end of the scavenger hunt, with the assistance of their three dogs, Kyle got down on one knee in front of their christmas tree and asked Lianne to marry him… And she said yes! 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 states, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs."