Pre-K Sweethearts Matched Online And Got Married
When Amy Giberson, 34, and Justin Pounders, 34, of St. Petersburg, Florida, met on Match.com, they knew right away that they had something special.
Their first date was at a restaurant on December 3, 2014, and the chemistry between them was so intense that a waiter brought over a dessert marking the date, without even knowing its significance. The penmanship is a little weak, but still, it's dessert:
"Not even halfway through dinner I found myself shivering because I was so excited," Amy told Cosmopolitan.com. "I remember telling myself 'I'm going to be having dinner with this man for the rest of my life."
Two months later, the happy couple got an even better surprise.
"Justin casually mentioned he always liked my name because his first crush was a girl named Amy in preschool. I joked and said 'Well it wasn't me, so I don't want to hear about this Amy.'"
But, wait a second, it was. About a month later, Justin was rubbing a scar on his forehead and told her the story of how he got it by falling off the monkey bars at Sunshine Pre-K - the same school that she had attended!
Her mother dug threw some old photos and sure enough, there was one of little Amy and Justin sitting right next to each other in Pre-K.
On November 19, 2015, Justin proposed live on The View, with the help of a bunch of kids at their old pre-school.
A year later, this past weekend, the childhood sweethearts tied the knot at the Mahaffey Theater in their hometown of St. Petersburg, amid custom-made glasses with palm tree prints in honor of the classroom in which they met over 30 years ago.
"I was hopeful that those love stories Nicholas Sparks wrote about were actually real and that I'd have a great love one day," Amy said. "But I never expected this!"
While the two are absolutely elated now and are currently enjoying a two-week honeymoon in the Caribbean, the path to their love story was filled with trials and tragedies.
Amy had been disappointed and let down so many times before that her friends were starting to tell her she needed to stop giving so much in every relationship.
"People would tell me 'Don't be so open, Amy. Don't trust so easily' but if I stopped doing that, it wouldn't be me," she said. "It's just absolutely nuts that I went from the tragically misguided girl who was always let down to the man of my romance novels dream!"
Justin's past is even more harrowing. In July 2012, his fiance, Adrianne Roberts, was murdered the night before they were set to move in together. The 29-year-old had gone out for final drinks with her roommate and was followed home, sexually assaulted and brutally attacked. Justin didn't find out until the following morning when he showed up at her place with a moving truck and was greeted by detectives.
"We believe the day she became his guardian angel, she set out to help heal his heart and take care of Justin. We feel she found me and brought us together."
As such, Amy and Justin want to share their story, to remind everyone that no matter how many terrible things happen in your life, there is always room for magic.
"Never give up on love and love will never give up on you."
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