On August 17, 2013, my love story with Tasha began a new chapter: marriage.  We were married in River Falls, Wisconsin with nearly 400 of our closest friends, family, and those who have supported us along the way. It was a memorable ceremony with a dessert reception at the church, followed by the dinner reception at the River Falls Golf Course. Our first dance was done to “Always” by Atlantic Starr, which has always been a favorite love song of mine. I never thought way back when the song was popular that it would be my wedding song someday!  Perhaps even more remarkable was the fact that my wife looked so graceful on the dance floor; I say remarkable because she is a quadriplegic.  I never doubted that she had some moves, but she was very apprehensive in the days leading up to the big day.

August 17 was the culmination of the first chapter in our lives together, a chapter that began on December 20, 2011.  That evening I decided to peruse some of the profiles on ChristianMingle.  I wasn’t totally sold on trying to find a girl to date as I was quite content with my bachelor lifestyle.  My feeling was only fortified as I moved from page to page, not seeing anyone I was interested in.  As I reached page 6 I felt like ending my search and calling it a night.  Something inside me told me to press on, however.  I’m so glad I did; when I got to page nine that’s when I saw Tasha’s profile.  She was beautiful.  Too beautiful!  In fact, I thought it was going to be a wasted effort as there would be no way she’d be interested in me.  One of the things that encouraged me the most about her was how truthful and honest she was about her being in a wheelchair.  It seemed like our ideas about the type of person we were looking for matched up, so I sent her a ‘smile’.  I checked back day after day hoping for a ‘smile’ from her, but nothing.  I figured with it being Christmas week that she was busy and didn’t have time to respond.  By day 11 I had all but given up when, out of the blue, she smiled back!  We began an email correspondence a few days later.  Following a solid month of communicating via email, and eventually by phone, we decided to meet at Caribou Coffee.  Our first date lasted six hours, and included medium hot chocolates and later pizza at Pizza Hut.  It was simple, yet amazing. 

It really didn’t take me long to figure out that she was someone who I wanted to spend my time with.  Throughout the summer of 2012 my love for her grew, to the point where I knew by late summer that she was the girl I was going to marry.  That big step was realized on October 8, 2012 in Grand Marais, Minnesota.  It was there, along the shore of Lake Superior that I popped the big question through a poem that I had written for her.  Neither of us believed we would find love through the web, but that is exactly what happened.  The next 10 months seemed to move too slow as we planned for the big day.  Thankfully, everything came together as smooth as we could’ve hoped for.  Following the wedding, we left for a brief two night mini-honeymoon to Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.  Upon our return I spent the last week of August moving out of my apartment, which was an hour away from her home (now, our home).  We decided early on in our relationship that we would honor God, and each other, by not living together or being intimate until we were married.  So, we traded off driving an hour and 10 minutes every weekend to see each other.  Let me tell you, it was totally worth it!  It’s been nine months and we can honestly say that we love each other more than ever!