Love finds people in MANY different ways, through many different means. The way it found us and we found each other is quite the tale.

Meeting as adults is different than meeting as youths. Meeting back in the day is different than meeting in the current day and age. This is our story.

I met Nichole as an adult,  some time after my most serious relationship. Same as her.

She met me with a very young little man already in her life. I was, at that very moment, wrapped around the finger of my daughter, Leilla, who was nine months older than her Wyatt.

Both of us being single parents caused dating to be quite... complicated.

Embracing the new world, Nichole and I met on the seediest of places. The internet.

With many sites offering less serious offers than relationships, we ended up on the much more intentional Match.com.

Not long after setting up my account, I saw a BEAUTIFUL girl named Nichole.

I never told her this, but the only reason I paid for a subscription was to be able to reach out to her, specifically.

I saw her picture, that she was in an area I knew well, she seemed kind, funny, sweet, into sports, many similarities. What caught my eye though, was that she was a Special Education Teacher. One of my favorite family members, that I constantly thank God for is an aunt I grew up with, who was in the special needs community and is now deceased, that had my heart in such a special way.

"OK Josh, you probably only have one shot. Make it count"

I puffed out my chest, cracked my neck and... Asked her on a date. Through a keyboard.

And it worked! I spit the right words, explaining a bit about myself & what I thought made her stand out to me, and I offered to take her to get Mexican.

Our first date seemed infinite and momentary. Over before we knew it. We had spent the time hardly eating, both talking too much to TOUCH the food. We were laughing more than expected, being more vulnerable than either of us believed we could.

She hates horror movies, but had so much fun that she even joined me for one, afterwards.

It was titled "Us", and remains very special to me to this very day.

We knew right away, that it had found us, love had. We embraced it.

We were engaged in Asheville, NC, beside a patch of dasies at The Biltmore Estates. I will admit, she thought I was playing around, and I can't say that I blame her.

In these past four years, we have grown to know one another intimately, talking late into the night still as when we first met. We have seen concerts and movies, tubed the mountains of NC and The Catawba River of SC with our children. We have been to, or through almost 10 states, and intend on checking off the rest together.

We coach soccer and cheerleading in our community when we're not tangled up with something else. We love spending time with both sides of our family and any of our friends for any or no reason, and generally speaking, just enjoy life together. Always together.

Love found us at an odd time in our lives, right when we thought it was only a dream of the past.

God gave us what we feared was not to be ours, and we are so very thankful to him for each other and the many blessings he gave us through US.

That, in a nutshell, is our story and we thank you for joining us for the first page of the next chapter.