 I was born in Pennsylvania. I was part of a large family, but I'm the youngest of six children. I was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. I've only had a brother. My parents started dating when my mother was a sophomore in high school. My father was a senior, and then they got married. We were actually planning their 50th wedding anniversary when my mother passed away. We've been together 24 years. We were in San Diego when we met. Tony was in the military. And we had gone to a country in western bars to learn how to line dance and two-step. And Tony was there, and Tony came down and said, Will you be my partner? And he was. We sat down at our first date. I told him I loved him, and I wanted to be with him for the rest of my life. And he got back up and went in the bathroom. I was like, huh? We did a lot of fun things, and that's one of the reasons why I knew he was my soulmate was because when we were together, time went fast, and when we were apart, time went slowly. We all got very close, whole family. And the next thing I know, you know, the family has pulled me into their family. So I mean, it's just, his family was there for me. We have nieces and nephews. They've always come down and spent time with us. We really did consider adopting. But at the end of the day, we couldn't both be their parent. And so we started worrying about what would happen. And so I would like to think that, you know, people like Tony and I would have been great parents. We both have careers that mean a lot to us, and so we put a lot of energy into our careers. I am a realtor. And I'm a professor of English education. He loves his students. I love my students. We both, I think, in our lives and careers have taken risks that we felt like we could take because we always knew that no matter what, I had this unconditional love at home that was never going anywhere. Yes, we love each other tremendously. And it shows in a million different ways, like Tim finishing my sentences for me. We are better together than we are separate. I want the ability to make that official. I don't want to go to Maryland and get married and then come home and not be married. I want the real thing. Well, we're Virginia, so we want to get married in Virginia. I served my country. I was injured while serving my country, and it's very important to me to know that I am a part of this country. Tony and I are both really patriotic. My dad fought in World War II, so we were both brought up to love this country, and Tony, that's one of the reasons why Tony joined the military. We've lived our lives with dignity and honesty and openness. We are a married couple, and we would like to be recognized as a married couple. Tony's my soulmate. I love Tony with all my heart and soul. He is my support. He's my backstop. What marriage means to us is that we stand by each other no matter what happens. That when one of us falls, the other person's there to pick him up. The rest of the stuff is just window dressing. Marriage puts us together for the rest of our life. And it really means something substantial because it's been such a long drive to get here.