So nice to meet you! We are Shawn and Leslie. We met online in February 2011, as many couples do now. Shawn was an Army transplant from Columbus, OH, while Leslie had lived in the Chicago suburbs her whole life.

Shawn: "I remember messaging Leslie and thinking, 'There is no way she will respond to me. She is way out of my league but what the heck. I'm going to try anyway.'"

Leslie: "When I got his message, I thought, 'Here is a guy whose heart is in the right place. He is a single dad and has his daughter living with him full-time. He looks like such a great guy. I can't wait to hear back from him.'"

Having become best friends a year and a half later, Shawn proposed. Originally, he was going to propose at the restaurant where we had our first date but just couldn't wait until then---he popped the question in our kitchen on one knee. We got married in the Bahamas at Half Moon Cay with a handful of friends in October 2013.

As far as our visions of family, we discussed wanting to have a blended, diverse family of his daughter, our biological children, and children who join us through the gift of adoption, ensuring our children each feel comfortable and know they are equal members of our family. After five years of countless doctor appointments, we discovered we were unable to have biological children. With that, we've poured our souls into completing our family through open adoption.