Cheryl

We met on eHarmony in August of 2007. Nick was busy working an outage at the Rouge Plant at the time (7 days a week), and Cheryl had a busy schedule of evenings and weekends while working as an event planner. Many great e-mail conversations led to many great phone conversations, and after several months of swapping letters and phone calls while living in the same area, Nick was relocated to Ohio for his job. Fortunately, Nick still had family and friends in the Detroit area, and we finally got to meet in person in December of 2007, just before Christmas. Soon after, we spent weekends traveling to see each other. Although the distance and time apart was hard, we would never trade that time for anything. Because we were forced to spend so much time on the phone, we were able to learn things about each other that a lot of couples never have the chance to. Not to mention that our dates lasted 48 hours when we did get to see each other! Nick was relocated yet again to Pittsburgh in November 2008. After living here for several months, an opportunity arose for Nick to purchase the home he was renting, and we became first-time homeowners in May 2009 and the home repairs and updates began. July 4, 2009 was an evening that neither of us will ever forget. Cheryl and her parents were visiting Pittsburgh to work on the landscaping and enjoy the beautiful downtown fireworks together. We spent the evening in the park listening to Three Dog Night play live, and settled in for what turned out to be the most spectacular fireworks show ever. In the midst of watching the fireworks over the river, Cheryl noticed Nick had walked away, and then him say "Sit down!"...when in actuality he said "Turn around!". When she sat down next to him (with "Renegade" by Styx playing in the background, although Nick denies this to this day)... Nick was on one knee and said, "Cheryl Lynn Gniewek, I want to spend the rest of my life with you ...will you marry me?" To which Cheryl responded, "Yes....Absolutely yes!!" (She was so unexpectedly excited, she had to say it three times!). And so it began...Cheryl moved to Pittsburgh in August of 2009, and we live here together now with our two dogs, Roxy (4 years, German Shepherd mix) and Cash (4 months, Yellow Lab mix). We've spent the last year enjoying working on our house to turn it into an amazing home for ourselves, and sharing the experience of planning a wedding together. Despite an unusual start at a relationship, we feel very lucky and blessed to have found one another in this great big world full of people. Although we are grateful that we are now in the same place and have settled into a more "normal" lifestyle, we will never regret or forget the building blocks that helped us to form the marriage that awaits us...patience, kindness, caring, understanding, desire, laughter, strength, perseverance, and the best love we can each give of ourselves.