We are Matt & Alissa Peppley and have a sweet son, Isaac, who was born March 2010. We live in Olympia, Washington, USA and are blessed to have wonderful family and friends in the area. We attend Mountain View Church of the Nazarene, and thank God for His presence, provision, and peace every day.
We were blessed with a little girl, Anna Joy, who was diagnosed with two serious heart defects. She was born December 8, 2011 and passed away December 19, 2011. Our 11 days with her were bittersweet, and our days continue to be just that.
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(Some background by Matt)Alissa & I met when I moved to Olympia in mid-2003. We met at church where she was helping start a young adult ministry. I joined the leadership team for the group and we began to get to know each other. Alissa was kinda dating some punk, and I told myself I wasn't really interested in her anyway, so that was okay.
However, that punk started dating someone else at the same time. When Alissa found out she rightly so ended that doomed relationship. Well, as a friend, I wanted to console her, so I did. Then we found ourselves hugging. And we both kind of liked it. So we kept hugging. Pretty soon we were dating. Then we were engaged. Then we got married. Time from dating to marriage: eleven months. Yup, you read that right. 11. Less than a year. One less than a dozen. And here we are, seven years into the marriage. And she still likes me. At least most of the time.
Anyway - We got married in September 2004. Several people counselled us to move away and get started on our own, away from familiar things. We thought maybe northern Washington, or perhaps Oregon. But then an opportunity came at my work to get a lateral transfer to Tennessee. We thought about it, prayed some, and I posted. We hadn't really made a definite decision yet when I got the job offer. Being a wild and crazy couple we decided to take the job. We moved to Murfreesboro in March of 2005. Yup. You read that right. Six months after we got married. Less than a year. Half a year. Crazy? Maybe. But it was one of the best times of our marriage.
We moved back only after we decided we were tired of spending all of our vacation time and money flying back to the great Northwest. I got another transfer back with my job, and came back in 2008.
Over the years we had been trying, without success, to get pregnant. We did some fertility treatment stuff, and then -- you can read the rest on the other pages. (See Anna's Story.)
