We have been together for over five years now and are still going strong. From the beginning, we have had many similar interests that allowed our friendship to grow into something stronger than we thought possible.

To be honest, the first time I saw Tom (Justin), I thought he was a good looking guy, under all that hair (on his face that is), but I did not think much about him in any other way. He kind of grew on me, like mold that you cannot get rid of no matter how much you scrub at it! Really, we became great friends first and spent a lot of time hanging out, watching movies, playing games, going off-roading, and just talking about everything and anything. He made life fun and interesting and I found myself wanting to spend more time with him whenever I could.

Then it happened while we were talking. After a very grueling afternoon waiting tables and having a generally bad day, he looked at me, held my face in his strong hands for a second and kissed me. I did not know what to do! I asked him why he did that and he said “You looked like you needed one.” It took me about five minutes to sort through my feelings then I turned and kissed him back. He asked me why I kissed him and I told him because I wanted to know if I really liked him or was just surprised. Turns out, I really liked him!

- Carrie

For me, I thought that the first time I saw Carrie; she needed someone to talk to, really talk to. So, I went out of my way to get to know her and spend time with her. From there, well, life has a funny way of bringing people together. I found myself quickly falling for her, though I knew she needed time to sort out what was going on in her life then. When I finally let her know how I felt I was relieved to find out she had the same feelings for me.

I remember the first time I introduced Carrie to my sister and mom. Sis told me that I should start dating Carrie right then and my mom told me that was the happiest she had seen me in a long time and that it was good to hear me laughing again. I have been with Carrie through some of the toughest times of her life and some of the happiest as well. I know that I want to be with her for the rest of our lives together so that I can continue to be there for her when she needs or wants me. Our differences have given us the chance to stay ourselves, yet still enlighten each others lives, whether we wanted to or not.

We have a give/take relationship: I give, she takes, all of it (ha-ha). Actually, we try to split everything as best we can down the middle. I do the washing, she puts it away. I drop junk everywhere, she picks up everything.

We have changed each others thoughts on different things: she likes to sail, now so do I. I like to Jet Ski and off road now she does also. Carrie is constantly on the go, almost never stopping. I prefer to sit back and watch the world move on by. Somehow, we work though. Our similarities give us something to do together and our differences make us find ways to come together.

- Justin

We look forward to spending our most treasured day with all of you on May 19th 2006. And enjoy the thought of being surrounded by those we love and care about as we make our commitment to each other in the eyes of God (finally) and begin our new lives together as one.