We met back in 2011 and both thought the other was cute at a sober event, but never had the courage to say anything, and then life happened. Fast forward to 2015 and we rekindled through letters– yes, writing letters. We wrote many, many letters over the course of a year through Layne's time in "summer camp" (what we call it for Charlie's sake), and we wrote openly and we wrote honestly. Immediately after "summer camp" ended, we started to hang out, and decided a couple months in to our relationship at Barbarella to say our first "I love you's". It still makes us laugh at the way it happened. We have both grown together over these last 3 years and with Charlie– and through all of it we have appreciated the hard times, the fun times, and the "monotonous" times.

Working in the field of drug and alcohol treatment, I've always had to work holidays. I missed Christmas with Brie and Charlie in 2016 and 2017, I wasn't going to let it happen again. So I made certain arrangements with my company to spend Christmas 2018 at home. I've always dreamed of having the perfect Christmas morning with my future wife, my child(ren) and dog. This time I made the dream a reality, only better. Now I've never been a religious man, or a particularly spontaneous man, but at 6:53AM CST on December 25, 2018, I stopped the gift opening festivities and sat Brie and Charlie down at the piano (Freyja wouldn't sit still) and asked them both if they would allow me to become a husband and a step-father. Brie said yes! But Charlie got upset until I showed him the ring I got for him also. With both rings nestled firmly on the fingers of my forever family, I smiled and realized that I was finally home.