From our heartbreak journeys to our healing hearts, God truly has had His hand in this beautiful love story...

Take this back to the mid 80's, we were in the same church youth group, we were classmates going through school, and eventually graduated High School together. We knew each other, but to be honest, Shawn was naive and quiet and Chris liked older girls. Our continuous joke is that Chris thought he was too cool for Shawn and Shawn didn't even know who Chris was... but, that was not true, because ALL the girls knew Chris!

We both went our different ways, however our lives and families would continue to cross paths many times. Our oldest sons, Ely and Tanner, were friends who enjoyed Holiday Acres and racing on the fastest wave runner at the lake, where Shawn dropped to her knees each time and prayed, ugh... They were also competitive against each other, and with each other in baseball, as well as good friends. Now for our younger sons, Braedan and Alec, they just enjoyed fishing and spending time at the lake houses. You could always find Braedan at the Botkin's lake home raiding their kitchen cupboards! "Hey Pam, do you have anything to eat!??!"

Both of us traveling separate journeys in our lives, we had great love, happiness, and joy. We never imagined that deep heartbreaks would join us together 30 years later. Our boys were our "cupids" in setting us up, to the point of Shawn's boys telling her many times, "Don't mess this up Mom, he's a good one!".

Our first date, April 9th, 2020, was a hike through Rothwell Park for literally hours and hours, talking, laughing, and absolutely freezing to death. Chris finally invited Shawn into his truck, goodness, she never thought he'd offer! And, the gentlemen that Chris is, he asked if he could give Shawn a hug before we parted ways for the evening. From that point forward, we've been 24/7 growing, sharing, consoling, healing, and enjoying life intentionally with one another.

Each of us leaning into God, our life experiences has made our relationship and love more gentle, kind, compassionate, and unconditional for one another. The rest of our story continues once again with that great love, happiness, and joy we once had before. We recognize that God has given us each an abundant amount of grace in allowing us to have time to heal from our heartbreaks, to find true and genuine love with one another, and to realize His plan for us. We will now go from two separate individuals to one as we honor Him through our marriage vows to each other, to ourselves individually, and more importantly, to God.

What a truly beautiful love story He created for us!

Jeremiah 29:11 ~ "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Matthew 19:6 ~ "So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate"

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