About Us

  Our family as we know it now started on March 27, 1998. That is the day that we (Shane and Jason) met for our first date. I (Jason) had just started looking into developing a new circle of friends and found a Portland Radio (Z100) website that had personal ads. I thought that most of the ads were so blatantly superficial that I decided to post one of my own. Basically stating that I was interested in meeting new people, but that the Internet made it too easy to hide behind false identities. So basically whomever responded, my intention was to immediately schedule a place to meet in the real world. Within 24 hours, Shane responded and we went about setting up a place and time to meet. The scheduled destination was the Kennedy School McMinamens in northeast Portland near where Shane was living. When the night finally came, I arrived at her door to pick her up and we went off to get to know each other. After finding that the Kennedy School was very popular, in fact so popular that there was no where to sit, we went to another McMinamens on 15th and Broadway. There we sat and talked for what seemed like only a few minutes was actually 3 or 4 hours. At which point we decided to leave and head back to Shane's house. Once there we continued our discussion until around 3am. With a hug and a good-bye, the night was over and whether or not we knew it yet.. this was to become a life long relationship that started from an email.

  We continued to date regularly and talk on the phone what seemed every night. When the weekend of July 4, 1998 came around, one of my co-workers asked me to house-sit for the weekend. Well of course Shane and Samantha were going to spend some time with me there.. so it was a great weekend. On the morning of July 4, we went to the park nearby (Ibach Park) and played with Samantha and some of the cool toys there. (This is a very nice park.) They had some tile boards where the tiles spin on a shaft and you can make patterns with each tile having a different color on each side. So, me who was feeling patriotic on the 4th of July proceeded to create an American Flag on one of the boards. Shane however had different plans... She went about creating a message on hers. It went exactly like this:
 

MARY ME?

Note that there wasn't enough room to write marry with the correct spelling, so Jason in his infinite sensitivity and wisdom who was so surprised that he didn't know what else to say said.. "you spelled it wrong.?!?!"

  So let the wedding plans begin. We had our wedding at St. Mary's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on the afternoon of March 4, 2000. There were many family and friends in attendance, and we all had a great time. Shane, Samantha, and I rode in a horse drawn carriage to the reception. Samantha loved the horse (it was a surprise) and she even got to feed him carrots after we arrived at the reception. By then end of the evening we were all really tired and Shane and I spent our first night as husband and wife in a suite at the Benson Hotel. The following day, we had Samantha's baptism at the Cathedral and most of the family who were in town for the wedding were able to attend.

  We had our Honeymoon after Shane finished her winter term at PSU. We were able to fly 1st Class to and from the Island of Kauai, Hawaii! What a great trip, the first time both of us had been to Hawaii. It was very relaxing and we had a great time. We have some photos online from our trip, please take a look!

  On August 17, 2000, Jason's step-parent adoption of Samantha became official, and the following September 24, 2000, our son Jonathan was born. Very much has happened since we first met, and it's all been worth it. Albeit a very exhausting ride.

Welcome! Last Modified:  Thursday, November 11, 2004