This story begins in the fall of 2010. I was training a recruit and we began to make small talk in the middle of the night about our police academy, since we both attended the same one, at different times. During our conversation, he told me that despite the academy being challenging at times, they had a "smoking hot" class leader, aka Kris, who kept the class in line and kept it running smoothly.

My recruit told me that although he was not allowed to have Facebook, per his wife, he suggested I send Kris a message and tell her “hello” from him. I was able to find her on online and I sent her a message, and we began to talk back and forth through Facebook messenger. As we continued to talk, I eventually gave her my number and asked her to text me, to make the communication between us easier. I thought she was very pretty and had beautiful big brown eyes and I was interested in getting to know more about her; however, when I sent her the message giving her my telephone number, she stopped messaging me, so I assumed she wasn’t interested in me and I moved on.

Over the years we would send each other jokes and memes through Facebook messenger, where we maintained a friendship. One night around 2018, I was at the deer lease and we were sending funny Hispanic memes back and forth, and she told me the truth about what happened when I gave her my phone number. She informed me that after I provided her my telephone number, she reached out to my trainee to inquire about me. She told me that my trainee told her that I was a “ladies’ man” and to steer clear from me, so she followed his advice. Looking back, it was the smart move because the stars have to align for things to take place as they should, and the timing has to be perfect. At that time, in 2010, the timing was awful, but it planted a seed that took a long time to grow and blossom into what we are today. Kris went on to tell me that if she and I were ever single again at the same moment, we should get together and have a drink to share some laughs.

Fast forward to June of 2021. I sent her a message and asked her if she was ready to get that drink. I told her I was now single and ready to meet up with her. We spent another two months talking on the phone and texting each other every day, getting to know one another and what we wanted out of life. It turns out, our life goals were close enough, and we began dating to see where it led us.

After a few months, she started to come over and completely change my house decorations, repaint the house, clean, and make sure there were no remaining items from my past relationship. You know, normal Latina behavior.

We have been through so much in such a short amount of time. Two surgeries, an on-duty wreck that almost killed me, getting to know my new daughter and Kris getting to know her new sons, and trying to ingratiate myself with her family, who welcomed me with open arms. We took a vacation to Lake Tahoe together in October of 2023 and that’s where I proposed to her, and I saw her final wall break down when she saw the level of commitment I was promising to her: the rest of my life by her side.

We cannot wait to share this moment with friends and family on November 30th, 2024 and share the rest of our lives together as one.

See you there.

K&D

Wedding Day