"The minute I heard my first love story, I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along."
- Maulana Jalalu'ddin Rumi
- Maulana Jalalu'ddin Rumi
This is our love story written by Adam. It was read by his sisters during our ceremony.
The stars of today's love story took very different paths into each other's lives.
Penny Louanne Moore was a small-town girl from the countryside of Southeast Indiana. Adam Christopher Fisher grew up in a rough area of Indianapolis' Eastside. Despite their varied backgrounds, destiny brought the two together in the fall of 2002.
Penny and Adam met on the campus on Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, in the newsroom of the BSU Daily News. Both were editors of the award-winning student newspaper, Penny in features and Adam in sports. Their desks were even situated within reaching distance of each other – not that it mattered, as both were in other relationships at the time.
Penny and Adam went through college as casual acquaintances, saying hello in passing at the Daily News and occasionally attending the same social functions. Serendipity even brought Penny into Adam's bedroom one night in 2003, though not for the reason you're thinking – she was attending a party at the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house where Adam lived.
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After graduating in 2004, Adam moved to Michigan to work at a small newspaper. Destiny called again just six months later when an out-of-the-blue job offer brought him to Marion, Indiana, just 30 miles away from Muncie, where Penny remained in school.
The would-be couple reconnected through a brand new technology at the time, a tiny website just catching on among college kids known as Facebook. Following a few online chats, Penny and Adam, along with some friends, met up in The Village on Ball State's campus in the spring of 2005 and hit it off.
They began seeing each other any time Adam would come to town. Weeknight trips to Dill Street Bar and Grill and The Chug soon developed into weekend excursions around the state, which eventually turned into nationwide adventures.
The couple bonded over their love of adventure. In December 2006 Penny took Adam to Buffalo, New York, to see his beloved Buffalo Bills trounce the despised Miami Dolphins. The expedition, though extremely wet and cold, remains one of the couple's favorite road trips.
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As in any relationship, the path to true love wasn't always smooth. Few people know that the couple split up in the winter of 2007. Penny was so distraught that she fled more than 1,000 miles and relocated to Naples, Florida. Penny will tell you the move was to take a job as a page designer at the Naples Daily News, but Adam claims the true reason she left is that no woman can stand to be without him.
The vast distance couldn't keep their hearts apart. They remained close friends, and Adam came to Florida to visit for Penny's 26th birthday in March of 2007. While on the beach, sparks flew and rekindled the epic romance. Six month later, Adam left his job at the Marion Chronicle Tribune and left his home state to follow his heart to Naples.
In late 2007, the couple spent time in Penny's tiny one-room apartment in North Naples, adjusting to living together while trying to avoid their crazy neighbors. Once the lease was up from Penny's first Florida apartment, the couple found a three-bedroom condo which they still call home today.
Both continue as underpaid and overworked journalists at the Naples Daily News, Penny as the editor of three community newspapers and Adam as a sports reporter. Living four miles from the beach, however, alleviates any headaches caused by their day jobs.
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In the end, struggles along the way made the couple stronger. Penny and Adam lived happily together for more than four years, their love growing deeper in each day and culminating on the evening of April 2, 2010. That's when Adam dropped to one knee on the sands of Captiva Island and asked Penny if she would let him love her the rest of his life.
The couple has set up a semi-permanent residence in Naples; it's permanent at least until Adam lands a job at ESPN or opens his own brewery or Penny becomes CEO of Barbizon Modeling, where she teaches young girls on the weekends. The lovebirds now spend their time homebrewing award-winning beer, attending cookouts on the beach and hosting friends in their guest bedroom. They still love travel and adventure and eagerly await their honeymoon to Jamaica.
The past six and a half years have included ups and down and plenty of twists and turns, most good but some bad. Through it all, the couple's steadfast love has endured, resilient and uncompromising.
While their love story has a happy ending, Penny and Adam know it is just the first book in a long series of epic romance novels yet to be written.
-Adam
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