Shawn and I met through Match.com. I saw a picture of him and recognized the background, a spot at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Brunswick, GA, so I knew we were both in the same field. I contacted him (which we still laugh about) and we talked online for about a month. Through our emails, we discovered that we both worked for the same government agency and had even been in training at the same time three years before and never met. It took him a month to ask me out because he had a friend discouraging him because I was a federal agent, too, and his friend didn't think it would work out. Meanwhile, my friends thought it was the perfect situation! We got to see each other a couple more times before he was sent to Washington, D.C., for training for six weeks. I went up to visit him for a holiday weekend and we both fell in love that weekend. When I had to leave him, I felt an ache in my heart that I had never felt before.
Shawn proposed to me three months later at the Museum of Modern Art in downtown Jacksonville, the location for our second date. He was so nervous and I remember wondering, "What is wrong with him?" He got on his knee and proposed. It was very sweet. I had no clue and found out later that my mom and dad and some friends had known for a week and had kept it a secret. We decided to have pizza and beer for lunch to celebrate and then have a nice dinner later. However, our celebration was cut short because I got called to work that evening and didn't get home until after midnight!
We got married four months later in February 2007 and went to London on our honeymoon. We had two weeks together before he deployed to Iraq for four months. A month and a half after he returned from Iraq, I found out I was pregnant! We were so excited. We also had to sell my house in Orange Park so I could relocate to Brunswick, GA, where Shawn was living. I was very fortunate that even with the bad housing market, my house sold in six weeks. We also still had another deployment to get through. Shawn's next deployment would have been right when the baby was due, so he volunteered to leave earlier. Unfortunately, this meant he left for Iraq right after the holidays, he missed our first anniversary, and he was gone for my second trimester and into my third. At about 30 weeks I had come complications with the baby and started having contractions, so after a short hospital stay, I was ordered on bed rest.
The agency we both worked for let him come home early to help me while I was on bed rest. I was so happy to have him home in general, but to have him home after having had a bit of a scare with the pregnancy was even more of a blessing. Our family expanded to three when our daughter, Lorelei Grace, was born on June 15, 2008. She has brought us so much joy and we both feel so blessed to have such an amazing little girl to watch grow. I actually resigned from my job as a federal agent to stay home with her full-time. In addition to our new baby, we also moved into a new house when we moved back to FL in October 2008.
For our second anniversary, we celebrated at Amelia Island Plantation by having a nice, relaxing couple of days by the beach. We brought along my parents and Lorelei, too, so it was more of a family celebration!
It's been a whirlwind three years since we met with a wedding, deployments, moves and a baby, but we both feel so lucky to have found each other!
We got married four months later in February 2007 and went to London on our honeymoon. We had two weeks together before he deployed to Iraq for four months. A month and a half after he returned from Iraq, I found out I was pregnant! We were so excited. We also had to sell my house in Orange Park so I could relocate to Brunswick, GA, where Shawn was living. I was very fortunate that even with the bad housing market, my house sold in six weeks. We also still had another deployment to get through. Shawn's next deployment would have been right when the baby was due, so he volunteered to leave earlier. Unfortunately, this meant he left for Iraq right after the holidays, he missed our first anniversary, and he was gone for my second trimester and into my third. At about 30 weeks I had come complications with the baby and started having contractions, so after a short hospital stay, I was ordered on bed rest. 
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