Hawley & Jennifer In Alabama

We met in 2016 while attending an Army National Guard course in Alabama. When we first met, we discovered that Jen's brother and Hawley had both attended the University of Central Florida at the same time and even lived in the same apartment complex! Being brought together 10 years later seemed meant to be! After we left the course, Jen returned to Florida and Hawley went back to Atlanta, GA. We continued to speak regularly and found we really enjoyed each other's company. We decided to try a long-distance relationship, and it worked! We have been married for over seven years and now reside in Alabama.

Hawley is now an Active Duty Major in the Alabama National Guard and serves as an Executive Officer for a Military Police Battalion, and Jen is a full time Circulating Nurse in the operating room at Jackson Hospital and is a Human Resources Officer in the Alabama National Guard.

We were both athletes growing up through college. Our passion for sports is now focused on endurance events. Hawley is an ultra-marathoner and triathlete, and Jen is a trail runner. We usually pick our vacations around racing destinations! We have a travel trailer named "Artemis" or "Artie" for short. Our ideal weekend is packing up Artie, racing, and then going on hikes with our two dogs, Trooper and Sarge.

We live in a 3 bedroom, 2 bath new construction home with a fully fenced in backyard on 1/3 of an acre lot. We plan to convert one of our guest rooms into a nursery/child's room in anticipation of the arrival of our child. Our neighborhood is comprised of a large diversity of families from different backgrounds. We have a large park and green area within walking distance. The local elementary school is two miles from our house.

Our neighborhood has multiple green areas that the neighborhood children play sports on and are always seen riding their bikes around. We have multiple friends with kids ranging from six months to 10 years old that live in surrounding neighborhoods and are always a phone call away.

We refer to downtown Prattville as the Hallmark town. Each holiday the town takes pride in decorating and hosting city wide events where the whole town celebrates. During Halloween, we have the parade of pumpkins and at Christmas the city puts up the Christmas tree walk, lights and decorations and a fake ice skating rink for all ages to enjoy. The downtown area is comprised of a renovated old mill with a beautiful nature trail and bridge over the creek with stores and restaurants.

Hawley grew up in an active-duty, Army household where her father was an Army officer and her mother was a school teacher. Hawley loved growing up in the active-duty lifestyle moving every two years. It truly was an adventure and a fun way to see the world at such a young age. By the time she was 14, she had lived in seven different states including Hawaii.

Hawley is close with her parents who live in Amelia Island, Florida and her oldest brother, Shane, who lives in Seattle with his husband, Bryant. She has another brother, Jon, who has two daughters, Emma and Delaney. Hawley refers to Delaney as her mini-me because she loves all the same things she did growing up!

Jen grew up living in multiple states across the US, following wherever her dad's career took them. Currently, her family is all spread out across the country. Her mom lives in upstate New York and is a Nursing School Instructor. Jen is in regular contact with her brother who is active-duty Navy and will be relocating to California. He is in a loving relationship and has a little girl, Amelia. Jen's sister, Julie and her two sons, Daylen and Leo, and grandparents all live in East Tennessee, which makes visiting really easy and allows for an adventure to the mountains!

During her childhood, Hawley’s parents always ensured holidays were celebrated and each holiday had a special meal. To this day, Hawley still cooks the traditional turkey for Thanksgiving, prime rib on Christmas and a special seafood dish for New Years. Her fondest memories are those moments around the dinner table with her family.

Halloween is always a fun time in our house. We dress up, dress the dogs up, get together with the neighbors and hand out candy to all the kids in the neighborhood... and that is a lot of kids. It’s a great time to meet and chat with everyone who makes up our community.

We are blessed to have amazing friends who have become an addition to our family. We are 'aunts' to several of our friends' children and have been in their lives since they were infants. We have a large group of friends in Prattville where we schedule monthly hangouts. One of our closest friends asked us to plan her gender reveal party and it was such an exciting event, we both felt honored to be asked to make that day happen for her and her husband! We are nicknamed the "rent-an-auntie" and assist our friends with babysitting and carpooling kids to sporting events. These kids truly mean the world to us and the bonds with them are extremely strong.

We try to plan one weekend a month where we get away and go on an adventure. In the summer, that usually is to a race location for a triathlon or trail run. We build our race schedules out several months and try to find a location we have never been so we can explore after the race and hopefully either relax by a lake/beach or go for a hike on a beautiful mountain trail. We are definitely outdoors people, and the vast majority of our adventures/vacations are visiting national parks, small mountain towns or a quiet beach get away. We own a travel trailer we call "Artie" that allows Sarge and Trooper to go on our adventures with us.

We have always wanted a child to share our love for adventures. Due to fertility problems, we could not grow our family on our own and are excited for the ability to adopt!