Forever and always, no matter what

We met through a mutual friend at RHAM High School when JD was a junior and Shaela a sophomore and the connection was instant. On May 22, 2014 JD asked Shaela to be his girlfriend after school by the buses! From there we snuck in time together between classes, supported each other at soccer/volleyball games, went to 3 proms together and made our parents drive across towns to see each other before we had our drivers licenses! JD was also the one to find our beloved Little Bear/Bubba who has now become shared custody between us and Shaela's parents!

For 5 years we were long distance between JD studying finance at CCSU (graduated May 2019) and Shaela studying nursing at URI (graduated May 2020). Through facetime calls, texting and visiting each other every 2 weekends or so, we managed to get through some of the hardest years apart! We found many go to locations and restaurants to pack in the most together, especially in Naragansett while Shaela had a beach house the last two years of school. We met some of our lifelong friends in college and are thankful for those memories, even if Shaela's final semester turned remote due to the start of COVID.

JD started a job at United Health Care soon after graduating and we toured apartments together that summer. We landed in a townhouse apartment in Vernon and JD moved in September 2019 while Shaela started her final year of college. Soon after, JD realized the apartment was a little quiet and lonely without anyone and decided he needed a cat companion. We adopted Ollie in October a weekend home together turning Shaela into an unexpected cat lover! And alas Shaela moved into the apartment soon after graduating to end their long distance (in the middle of a pandemic)! Shaela passed her NCLEX exam and started her dream career in August 2020 as a postpartum/newborn nurse. Working night shifts with opposite schedules for almost a year was hard to navigate at times, but JD always snuck in little moments and had dinner ready before her shifts. Fast forward to May 2022 where we celebrated 8 years by buying a house together in Newington, which we are loving!

The best day anyone could ask for! The rocks at Ocean Drive in Newport became a special trip to us years before when an elderly woman fell down the rocks while she was trying to spread her navy husband's ashes in the ocean. Shaela and JD ran to help her and she twisted her ankle, unable to reach the ocean. She asked us to spread his ashes and roses in the water which she was so thankful for and said "God sent me two angels today." From there, we visited that spot each year that held such a special meaning, which became so much more when JD proposed right there at sunset with a hidden photographer! JD had everything planned to a tee including Shaela's nails done recently, coordinating secretly with the photographer day of to show him who to look for and sneaking in a ring size by putting string around Shaela's finger while she was asleep! In the nick of time, we were able to get some daylight in since in true Shaela fashion we almost missed it, and luckily JD didn't drop the ring from his sweatshirt with Shaela thinking too ahead. It was the most perfect proposal a girl could dream of!