Once upon a time, a little girl was born in a small town on the Great Plains.  Little did she know that her prince charming was living only a few miles down the road.  So close to one another, yet so far away. As she grew, she collected dreams and memories, knowing that one day, they would guide her to a place unlike any other- where the world and all its afflictions would suddenly disappear- leaving a small miracle in their place.

The little girl was provided with more love and kindness than many will ever know.  Throughout her life, her mother and father showed her the boundless compassion of a parent’s love.  She dreamed of one day passing this love on to a child of her own.

At the same time, just miles away, the boy was carving his own destiny. His days filled with lessons of love and discovery. He didn’t know it then, but he was learning to navigate the thousands of smaller roads that would eventually lead him into the arms of his true love.

One day, 21 years later and 1,126 miles from where her journey began, while pondering the complexities of physics, the girl and the boy met.  The boy, a traveler himself, offered her a friendly smile and directions to the nearest restroom.  Upon her return, the boy had vanished. Assuming that she would never see him again, the girl rejoined her friends, but could not forget the boy’s strangely familiar smile.  Some time later, the boy- eyes filled with the same familiar light- reappeared.  As if they had known each other in some other place and time, they got lost in conversation.  As they spoke, it became clear that their journeys were not those of strangers, but more of star-crossed companions.

A short time later, the young man, realizing what he had found, proposed that they never again travel alone and asked for her hand in marriage. The couple were joined under the magical branches of an ancient oak tree, with their families and greatest friends in attendance. The evening was truly enchanted and even the breeze seemed to carry the whispers of eternity.

As their love grew, the couple proudly walked together overcoming life’s challenges as if they were no match for the magic that had brought them together. Before long, they decided that it was time to pass the love they had found onto their own child. On a cool winter afternoon in February, the couple discovered that they would soon become a family of three. The next nine months would mark the transition from the life they had known to the miracle on the horizon. The days, weeks, and months passed, each quicker than the one before. Suddenly, on a cool, fall night, the wind began to blow, whistling through the tall pine trees that had been still just seconds before, the sky grew brighter as if the moon had been given a gift from the sleeping sun, and a beautiful baby boy was born.