(John Hawk's Pub, Milwaukee, WI, November 2000)
Shannon and I met initially in August 1998 at the wedding of our dear friends. I had just moved back from Paris and was planning on moving back after finishing my M.A. at UW-Milwaukee. I ended up loving teaching at the university level so much that I decided to stay in the States and go on for a Ph.D.
We continued to see each other once in a while through our friends over the next two years. In April 2000, Shannon finally asked me out (I'm leaving out A LOT of details). We had such a great time together, all the time. I knew almost instantly that I wanted to marry him: He is a really great person; He was close to his mom, and he talked about her so kindly and positively all the time; He has a great circle of friends who are all really nice (just like he is) and social and love to go out and have fun; He is also really supportive of every one of my endeavors. When we started dating in April 2000, he knew that I was headed to Penn State for my Ph.D. in August of that year, and he couldn't have been happier for me. For the 6 years I worked on my Ph.D., Shannon was one of my biggest cheerleaders.
Shortly after Shannon and I started dating we discussed having children. During that discussion, we happened to share with each other that we wanted to adopt 1 or 2 kids. Before ever having met him, I knew that I wanted to adopt, and I was 99% certain that I wanted to adopt domestically (more on that later). Shannon felt the exact same way. I knew that, were we to get married, we had the same goals when it came to starting a family: we would have 1 biological child and then adopt 1 or 2 more children. I remember feeling really great that I had met someone who felt as strongly about adoption as I did. I considered it a true blessing.
We continued to see each other once in a while through our friends over the next two years. In April 2000, Shannon finally asked me out (I'm leaving out A LOT of details). We had such a great time together, all the time. I knew almost instantly that I wanted to marry him: He is a really great person; He was close to his mom, and he talked about her so kindly and positively all the time; He has a great circle of friends who are all really nice (just like he is) and social and love to go out and have fun; He is also really supportive of every one of my endeavors. When we started dating in April 2000, he knew that I was headed to Penn State for my Ph.D. in August of that year, and he couldn't have been happier for me. For the 6 years I worked on my Ph.D., Shannon was one of my biggest cheerleaders.
Shortly after Shannon and I started dating we discussed having children. During that discussion, we happened to share with each other that we wanted to adopt 1 or 2 kids. Before ever having met him, I knew that I wanted to adopt, and I was 99% certain that I wanted to adopt domestically (more on that later). Shannon felt the exact same way. I knew that, were we to get married, we had the same goals when it came to starting a family: we would have 1 biological child and then adopt 1 or 2 more children. I remember feeling really great that I had met someone who felt as strongly about adoption as I did. I considered it a true blessing.
We had such a solid plan. I should have known that life would present challenges once we got married and decided to start a family. My mom has always said, "If you want to know if there is a god, make plans." She was so right.
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