My wife Kathie was born in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and moved to Grand Island, Nebraska when she was three or four. When she was 16 she moved with her family to Denver, where her father found work.

She married and moved to Yuma, Arizona with her husband, who was in the Army. At the onset of Desert Storm in 1990, they reassigned to Ft. Bliss, TX and the husband deployed to the Middle East with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. When her husband returned, they had a baby, divorced shortly thereafter, and that's when I met her.

Kathie has been involved in daycare since her days in Yuma, and had worked in day-care centers and most recently in that field as a nanny. Recently she decided to leave the daycare business and took a coordinator job at TJ Maxx.

Mike was born in Wiesbaden, Germany to me and my first wife in 1998. I was in the Army and stationed in the nearby town of Mainz at the time. My wife and I divorced at our next duty assignment, Ft. Bliss, and she and Mike moved up to Denver where he attended elementary school and middle school. In 2004, he decided on a change of lifestyle and moved in with Kathie and me in the Colorado Springs area, and began attending high school in our small town of Peyton. We reassigned to Ft. Knox, KY, where he finished high school.

In his senior year, Mike joined the Army Reserve as an X-Ray technician. Shortly after graduation, he went to Basic Training at Ft. Jackson, SC where he graduated top of his class. He then went to his technical training at Ft. Sam Houston and an internship at Ft Knox.

Mike stayed in Kentucky after his active duty was over. He was hoping to get a job as an x-ray tech in the area, but the money ran out before the job materialized so he came home to Colorado. While he's waiting for a job to open up here, he has been working with a medial unit in Denver and working at WalMart.

Austin was born of Kathie and her previous husband in El Paso, TX in 1991. He spent his first years there, then moved with us to Fairfield, CA where I spent three years as an Army Recruiter. We reassigned to Georgia where he attended his first few years of elementary school. In 2000, I had to go to Korea for 12 months so he and Kathie moved to Parker, CO and lived with Kathie's sister, Ginger. Austin attended fourth grade there in Parker. When I returned from Korea, my new duty assignment was just 50 miles south, at Ft. Carson. We chose to live outside of Colorado Springs in a small town called Peyton, where Austin attended 5th through 6th grade.

Austin went to high school in Kentucky with Mike. He played football his freshman year and did very well. As a freshman, he was made captain of the JV team; this was pretty rare, but he had a lot of heart. His sophomore year, he decided not to play football and went out for wrestling instead.

Back in Colorado he continued wrestling, then quit near the end of the season when he hurt his shoulder.