Our story began 4 years ago when Stacy moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas to care for his father. Unfortunately, a few short weeks later, his father passed away. While out shopping with his cousin and her then girlfriend who is also my Goddaughter. Stacy mentioned that he was on a journey to weight loss. After further conversation with my Goddaughter, it was discovered that we were both on the exact same journey. Stacy asked to see a picture of me and sent the infamous "tell her I said what's up". After several weeks passed, he reached out and that is when our love story began.

After a few weeks of chatting, we finally met for drinks at Longhorn in Hot Springs. We talked for hours!! We learned that we had so many things in common while also discovering that we were raised similarly but the dynamics of our family structure was completely different.

We celebrated the things that we have in common. Our love for food, fun, and traveling. We have been so many places together and shared so many firsts. I introduced Stacy to avocado, sushi, and crawfish which he now loves. In turn, Stacy introduced me to the great city of Chicago, baseball, and being loved out loud.

Of course, every love story is not without its dark times. Shortly after a year of being together, Stacy was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer. A year after he was declared cancer free, he was diagnosed again with Prostate Cancer. He went through 39 days of radiation and was able to ring the bell! Unfortunately, that was not the end of his health challenges, but to God be the glory for all that He has done.

In full transparency, these bouts with cancer, along with some other challenges, caused our relationship to suffer. We called it quits a couple of times but never lost the love we had for each other.