Once upon a time in a far away place called Sallie Mae.  There was this beautiful, young, single woman named Annabel (me). Who loved her job and was doing decently well. However...her manager thought she could do a little better.  So, he had arranged for this EXTREMELY handsome young man named Stephen to sit by her and give her a few pointers on how she can improve.  They were talking about this and that, things pertaining to work, things she needed to improve on...but Annabel, being the sneaky woman that she is, was able to veer things off topic and on to more important things...HIM. 

She was able to find out that he was in the military and had recently got back from deployment. To which her mouth replied "I could never date a military man....". Then her head kicked in and she changed her answer to "Well...maybe I could.  I don't know. It just depends on the guy." (Lets face it. That had to be thrown in there.  She was single and he was gorgeous.) So, she was able to get his number from a mutual friend and they started talking.  LOW AND BEHOLD, a few months later they started dating. 

(Looks like I WAS the type of girl to be with a military man.)

So, a few more months went by in our relationship and I noticed that every day I fell more and more in love with this guy and things started to seem pretty serious.  I basically wanted him to...how do I say this....make like Jay-Z and make me his Feyoncé!

So on Christmas Eve, 2014...he decided to do just that.  :)

I have been waiting for someone like Stephen for so long and I had been praying and asking God everyday to find someone so perfect for me.  It wasn't until I finally gave up on my own and handed it over to God that I was able to get exactly what I needed.  And I thank God everyday for him.

We are so excited to start our life together, and I'm so glad we will have you all as a part of it.  We ask for your prayer as we begin this journey together through life as husband and wife. :)

I first noticed Annabel in May when she walked by my desk at work. I cannot remember what she was wearing other than her bright, red lipstick, but she was as beautiful as she is today. Later that month I was given a task at work to sit by a handful of employees to help improve their skills. I was given about 30 3x5 cards with names so I organized them and noticed Annabel was on one of the cards. I had had a couple others helping me so I divided up the cards, but made sure I kept Annabel's. I had no idea where she sat so I kept waiting to find her at her seat, but it took almost two weeks. (She worked 4-9 and I worked 8-5, but I didn’t know that at the time). Once I knew where she sat I kept trying to find a time to sit with her, but I was busy with other tasks and couldn't stay after work most days because of school and the kids. Finally, I saw her at her desk before 5pm so I went over there to help her out.

Once I at down, she seemed very nervous and asked me if I was going to fire her...I just told her I was there to help and maybe give a few pointers. She was still very nervous, but eventually struck up a conversion in between calls. My military background came up and I remember her saying, "I could never date someone in the military. Well, maybe I could." I didn't realize that she corrected herself because of me; I just figured she had thought about it then changed her mind. I had given her some tips (I'm pretty sure she didn't like that at all), taken some notes, told her boss that she knew what she was doing then left for the day.

I saw her around, but didn't think she wanted to talk; however, a couple of weeks later while I was gone for my annual training for the Marine Corps, she told a co-worker/fellow Marine to get ahold of her. We talked during the remainder of my training and continued to do so after I got back. She invited me over one night after work and we sat on her porch for hours talking about most every subject there is: God, music, sports, school, work, lizards, other animals, spiders, more music, each other, the time I gave her pointers, the Marine Corps, previous jobs and even more music.  It was definitely past 3am when I left, but I didn't realize I had been sitting on that porch for over 5 hours...it definitely seemed like it had only been an hour.

We continued to talk over the next few months, then on September 30th I asked her to be my girlfriend. I told her right then what my intentions were...to one day marry her. How could one know so soon you ask? Well, before our relationship, I had asked her tons of questions that most people try to avoid while in a relationship. She asked me a bunch of questions as well and apparently our answers matched what the other was looking for. We could talk about anything with each other and we both needed that in our lives. We both realized that with God as our backbone we could make us work.

At about 11:30 on Christmas Eve, Annabel said, "Yes!" when I asked her to spend the rest of her life with me. Actually, the first words out of her mouth were, "Are you being serious right now?" so I asked again. She still didn't believe me so I asked a third time...then she realized the reality of the situation and said, "Yes!"

I am truly lucky to have found her in my lifetime and I am the happiest man alive :) Thank you, Annabel, for being so good to me and my children. For that, I am extremely grateful. I Love you!