How Our Experience Began

Our Experience started way back in 1999 when Gideon and I started dating. We were high school sweethearts who most people said would never last as I was going away to college and he was joining the Marine Corps. Much to everyone's surprise, we continued to fall more in love with each other and stayed together despite the long distance. We were married June 1, 2002 in Benton, IL. I was living in Indiana, and Gideon had orders to move to North Carolina after having been stationed in Okinawa Japan for a year.


In Fall of 2005, Gideon returned from his third deployment, this time to Iraq, and I moved to North Carolina to be with him. In March of 2006 we moved to Stuttgart, Germany. We loved living in Germany and all of the traveling opportunities it gave us. While there, I finished my Bachelor's Degree online and graduated with a degree in Business Management with an emphasis in Sales and Marketing. We also began focusing on expanding our family, beyond our two cats, Sasha and Cassie.

In September of 2007 we found out I was pregnant. In December we learned we were having a girl! We quickly decided on the name Hadley Christine, and our amazing beautiful little girl was born May 17, 2008 after 42 hours of labor. She weighed 7lbs 4 oz and was 19.75 inches long. She had pneumonia when she was born, so she spent 10 days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

Since leaving the hospital, she has been very healthy and we could not imagine our life without her. She shows us something new every day and has taught us what it really means to love another person.

In October of 2008, we moved to Newport, RI as Gideon had been accepted into a program that allows him to earn a college degree while still maintaining his active duty status in the Marines. After graduation, he is commissioned as a Marine officer. We were only in RI for 7 months for Gideon to attend a college prep school.

On June 1, 2009, we moved into the first home we have ever owned in Barre, VT. Even though the house needs a lot of TLC, we love it and are learning a lot about home improvement. In November 2009, we found out we were pregnant again. We were a little surprised, but very happy. We are now waiting to meet Malia Rose who is due August 1.

Well, that is a very condensed version of our story so far. Stay tuned for more updates and journey's through our Experience. I'll leave you with a recent picture of Hadley with her cousin Keagan.