James and I met of August 31st, 1997. We met at the Fairmont Leagion in Fairmont, Mn. He was at his half-sisters wedding dance and I was there as a favor to a friend of mine because she did not want to be there alone. Towards the end of the dance, James and my friend's boyfriend started talking to one another as we just stood there. As the song "Don't Take The Girl" by Tim Mcgraw came on, my friend made her boyfriend dance with her and suggsted that James and I dance as well. We did. Afterwards, my friend and I decided that breakfast at Perkins was in order and we invited James along. He came. Both of us are very shy and it took a lot of coaxing to really talk to each other. After breakfast we went back to the legion to pick up the rest of the vehicles and my friend and her boyfriend left James and I there to talk. Boy did we talk after the ice was broken!!!! As a matter of fact we were still in the legion parking lot at 7 am the next morning talking. We found that we had a lot of things in common and decided to give things a try. Several months later and many, many hours talking we realized that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. In March of 1998, James suprised me by asking me to pick out a ring because he wanted to be sure that I got one that I really loved. Later that evening James proposed to me while singing the song "From Here to Eternity" by Michael Peterson. I accepted and we were quick to share the news with anyone and everyone. Then in May of 1998, we were suprised to get a positive pegnancy test! We scurried around to move the wedding date up a full year because we wanted to be married before our child was born. We married September 12, 1998 at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Welcome, MN.
After a rather diffucult pregnancy, Alaina Jo Hoppe was born on December 23rd, 1998 at 11:59 p.m. Just in time for Christmas! We brought her home Christmas day and celebrated the holidays with our families. Today, Alaina is a happy 2 year old who is way too smart for her own good. Mom and Dad are very proud of her as are her grandparents! She is doing very well, be sure to check out her beautiful pictures here on the site!
In August of 1999, James and I found out that once again we had tested positive for pregnancy and we were going to have another baby. We will admit that we had mixed feelings about being pregnant again so soon, but we were very happy as well. This second pregnancy was not very easy either because we battled some bleeding early on and preterm labor again. On April 15, 2000 Paige Nicole Hoppe was born at 4 a.m. on the dot. Just in time to file the taxes! Today, Paige is 1 year oldd and has had a few battles along the way but is doing very well too. We are hoping that things can stay this good for a long time to come although we are in NO HURRY to have another baby! Anyone with 2 or more kids can understand this! There are some beautiful pictures of Paige here as well! Enjoy and come back often!
