From middle school sweethearts to a family of 7. This is the beginning of our family!
Middle School
My maiden name starts with a C and Jonathan’s last name starts with a D. We sat alphabetically in our 8th grade language arts class. Little did we know what the future had in store for us. Smitha Middle School is where we met. We started “dating” in the midst of the school year and attended the 8th grade dance together. As 9th grade approached, we knew we would attend different high schools.
There was a very “mature” conversation held towards the end of the school year when we talked about where our relationship stood. We realized we would not see each other during the school day and totally dependent on our parents to drive us around to “dates.” “Quotes” to emphasize this is in 14 year old terms at the time. The moral of the conversation was that we both really liked each other and when things stopped working for us – we would go our separate ways.
High School & College
Luckily that day never came. I attribute our relationship surviving the high school years because we went to different schools. The traditional drama that accompanies the teenage years did not bother us. We both took our studies seriously and excelled academically. We pushed each other to be better from an intellectual perspective (and still do to this day…). When it came time for college, Jonathan pushed me to pursue engineering. I thought this was a stretch and I am really glad he encouraged me to attend Georgia Tech. Whenever possible, we took the same courses and commuted together during most of our time in school. Eventually (almost every GT student talks about “getting out” – not graduating), we earned our degrees in Industrial Engineering together.
Jonathan was adamant that we not get married until after graduation… So two weeks later we walked down the aisle!! Family, lifelong friends from middle school, high school, college, and even a vice principal and teacher from high school attended our wedding!!
© SARAH & BEN PHOTOGRAPHY
Post-Graduation
Jonathan and I were active in our community and often volunteered together. We have an amazing village that supports us that I will forever be grateful for for!!! To give back a small part, we now have foundation that awards an annual scholarship to Jonathan’s high school alma mater, Osborne High School. It is important to us to show the students of Osborne that one CAN be successful even when the odds are not favorable.
A little over a year after getting married, we uprooted from Atlanta and moved to Spring, TX. We both accepted jobs in the oil and gas industry. Here is where things got a bit tricky. I was diagnosed with PCOS in college and had surgery to remove cysts after my freshman year. At this point, we knew having a family would be a bit challenging, so we actively started trying right after getting married. Throughout high school, we would have “dates” attending open houses, exploring new neighborhoods, and dreaming of our future family. We knew we wanted a larger than average family, but we never imagined the unconventional way we would get there.
The next post will detail the start of our infertility journey…