Dec. 1st, 2004: "Steve & I met through Date.com in early October 2002. Because I had been through several unsuccessful online dates, I was very cautious. We emailed and spoke on the phone for eight weeks before we finally met in person. Steve brought his three children (11, 10, 7) to a women's basketball game at Old Dominion (I work for UVa wbb). I figured it was a safe, public environment. We met several weekends after that for family events, but didn't have a one-on-one date until Valentine's Day. I surprised Steve with a candlelit surf & turf dinner and he surprised me with a DVD player. I was totally shocked, because I knew he couldn't afford such a lavish gift. We've been together ever since. We got engaged on my birthday (March 27th) and we were married in July. Although some of our family members and friends had reservations about the quickness of our relationship, we didn't want to wait another year. We lived three hours apart and the travel was becoming burdensome. We've been married now for sixteen months. Last month, we bought our first house together and are working on a new addition to the family."