How it began

Betty

Our story started with a completely innocent, strictly business Facebook friend request. Then? Radio silence for years.

Eventually, I found myself shamelessly checking his page, hitting “like” on everything, and sending a message that I panicked and deleted two seconds later. Lucky for me, the deleted-message notification did its job. Jerry asked what I’d sent, and before he knew it, I was inviting him out for coffee.

We met for that first coffee on January 14, 2024. Less than a week later, on January 20th, we had our first official dinner date at Brother Sebastian’s. Jerry picked me up without giving away the destination. When the kitchen brought me the wrong cut of steak, I tried so hard to be polite and just eat it. Jerry wasn’t having it. He playfully encouraged me to send it back so I could actually enjoy what I’d ordered.

Things moved fast after that. I was terrified of how right it felt, but a close friend gave me the reality check I needed: “Take off the running shoes.”

Becoming a family

Betty

That spring, while we were in Grand Island for an AA event, I worked up the nerve to ask Jerry to move in together. Leading up to the trip, I’d polled basically everyone I knew: “How crazy am I right now?” But honestly, my gut was set.

I’d already checked in with Nevaeh before asking Jerry. He then worked through the transition with Harley, and before the school year was over, Jerry and Harley officially moved in.

Blended family life naturally brought some wild plot twists. On our first major road trip to Arizona in October 2024—a drive that went shockingly smoothly—Harley decided Jerry’s car looked perfect for commuting to work. Mind you, without a driver’s license. So, from thousands of miles away on vacation, we had to coordinate an undercover sting operation with a friend to go “steal” Jerry’s car back from the parking lot at Harley’s job. Parenting at its finest.

The proposal—and the bunnies

Betty

Then came June 2025. After a marathon twelve-hour drive to Montrose, Colorado, we checked into an incredible Airbnb in the Gunnison mountains. A couple of hours before sunset, Jerry took me up into the peaks and asked me to marry him.

Through every crazy milestone, I couldn’t have dreamed up a more supportive, steady partner to build a life with.

Naturally, raising a family wasn’t quite enough excitement, so we added bunnies to the mix: Onyx, whom we rescued from under our front porch in September 2025, and Latte, who hopped into the family in March 2026.

It’s a life built on a lot of patience, tons of laughter, and just the right amount of mischief.