Tell us about yourself. Where are you from? Where do you live now?

Hi! My name is Joni and I’m from South Alabama, where I have lived most of my life.  I lived in Brandon, Mississippi during my high school and college years, but have been back in Dothan, Alabama for 14 years.  Danny and I have been married for almost 12 years, and we have 2 daughters ages 6 and 8.

How did you meet?

After I graduated Brandon High School in 1997, I moved back to Alabama, to attend a Community College here.  I didn’t know a soul, and I hated it. I couldn’t wait to get back to the Jackson area to attend Hinds, instead.  During my first semester, I met a girl who also was from another town and didn’t know anyone.  She and I became great friends.  I went to her house one night to study, and while we were studying someone knocked on her front door.  I was closest to the door, so I answered it.  There was this tall, brown-haired, brown-eyed, tan, good-looking guy standing at the door.  It was my friend’s neighbor Danny, and he had just gotten home from work and saw my out of state car tag in her yard.  Being in a small town, he just walked over to see who it was.  The moment I opened the door, our eyes met and we both got lost.  I don’t necessarily believe in love at first sight, but we both definitely had an undeniable moment when we first laid eyes on each other.

We became great friends and started hanging out and dating.  We were young and in love.
Describe the moment you knew you belonged together?

I’m thankful for my one and only semester that I  hated at that community college in Alabama, because I got to meet Danny.  After that semester I did move back to the Jackson area to attend Hinds.  Danny and I remained friends and kept in touch, but we dated other people since we were in different states.  During my college years in Mississippi, Danny moved to California where he had a good job.  As soon as he got word a couple of years later that I had graduated college and moved back to our hometown in Alabama, he quit his good job and moved back, too.  I didn’t know it then, but it was to be near me.  Even though several years had gone by, we picked right back up where we had left off, not missing a beat.  I knew then that he was the one for me.  He was like no one else I had ever been in a relationship with.  He was my best friend AND my Love!

What makes your relationship work?

In the 17 years I’ve known him, and in the 12 years we’ve been married, we have most definitely had our way ups and our way downs. Being married is much different from dating.  Marriage takes a TON of work.  I’ve often heard that marriage is 50/50.  I disagree.  It’s each person giving 100/100!

What I believe that makes our marriage work is our faith in God.  God carries us through the good and bad.  He gives us what we need to be the person and spouse we need to be.  Are we perfect or have the perfect marriage??  No way. But that’s what keeps things interesting!

What’s your favorite thing about each other?

A couple of my favorite things about Danny is he makes me laugh! We get each others humor and laugh together and at each other pretty often.  I also love the fact that he’s a wonderful Dad to our girls.  They absolutely adore their Daddy.

Tell us about your funniest moment together.

We have many years worth of funny moments!  One of the moments that I can think of was at our wedding.  We were standing at our Unity candle while a sappy romantic song was playing. After we lit the candle, and sat our candles down, he grabbed my hand and softly kissed it. You could hear a few “Awwwws” in the audience.  He then tucked my hair behind my ear and leaned to whisper something sweet and romantic.  Or, at least I thought.  As I was waiting for sweet nothings to be whispered in my ear, he said in somewhat of a panicked voice, “JONI.  Did you put the map in the car?”  I just about died laughing.  During his moment of sweetness he was thinking ahead of our honeymoon, and us traveling out of state after the ceremony and reception.  He was worried I had forgotten to pack the map. Life before GPS…haha!

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