The first thing that Shawn noticed about Sarah was her smile...but not in the usual way. Shawn and Sarah were both signed up for a dating site and, as Sarah likes to say, she happened to come across Shawn's profile and sent a simple smile (like a "hello, I like your profile but don't expect a response"). When Shawn woke up the following morning and saw Sarah's smile and profile, he felt the power of the Holy Spirit and knew he had to respond. We spent the next few days exchanging text messages and eventually agreed to have a video chat date. The first night we spent 5 hours on a video chat and the following night was another 4 hours. A week and a half later, Shawn came down to Lynchburg to visit Sarah for the first time. And then again two weeks later. This was the start of multiple trips up and down the Amtrak line from Lynchburg to Philadelphia. From the beginning our motto with each other has been "you be you". Sarah will say it's because "we're too old to play those games" but in reality, it's been years of hardship that each one has gone through that has brought them to this point of authenticity and vulnerability. We have both felt and been our true, unmasked selves from the time we first started to talk.