Our First Home
Carolann Mclaughlin /
Ben and I met in 2020 while working together at Oak Fire in Lake Geneva. I love telling the story of the first time I met him because, quite literally, after my first day I called my best friend and told her I had met the love of my life.
I later found out that Ben was 17 at the time — and I was freshly 19 — so obviously I had to wait until July, when he turned 18, to make my move. I am joking… but that is definitely kind of how it played out, because that summer is when we started serving together and getting to spend a lot more time with each other.
I like to think I made the first move, mostly because I was suddenly very committed to staying late to help him roll silverware. Ben, on the other hand, would walk me to my car every night we worked together. I very quickly went from wanting to be the first cut to being genuinely devastated if either of us got cut before the other.
We figured out pretty quickly how much we loved being around each other, and by October of 2020, we officially started dating. Since then, we have truly grown up together — through new jobs, college, moving in together, getting our puppy, and all of the little things in between. As corny as it sounds, we are each other’s home, and growing up together has given us some of our most cherished memories.
In November of 2025, Ben proposed, and now we are so excited for this next phase of life. Last May, we decided to bring home our little guy, Rocket. He very quickly became the center of our world — so much so that we decided to start looking into buying a house for him. Not entirely true, but definitely a huge factor!
The thought of our little family having a home together is such a dream for us. We cannot wait for Rocket to have more space, and for Ben to finally have room for all of his plants and gardening dreams — because our apartment simply cannot accommodate the garden vision this man has developed.
We are so excited to get married this July, and hopefully become homeowners by the end of this year. Buying our first home is our biggest goal right now, so it felt only fitting to include this dream as part of our wedding registry. To anyone who chooses to gift us funds toward this next chapter, please know how incredibly grateful we are!
L and E - First Home Funds
Alexis Eisel /
We are so excited to be buying a home! Bank CMG has this program called homefundit. It's kind of like a gofundme for first time homebuyers, and any money we raise goes towards our down payment! While we've spent time saving up for this ourselves, this is a FREE program through the bank that we would be dumb not to take advantage of! If anyone feels moved to contribute, we will get $2 for every $1 raised, through a lender matching grant on a portion of your donations. There is also an online shopping feature called “UpIt” where a percentage is pledged back to our down payment. So when you shop, make sure you stop by our campaign page first and visit the UpIt Store link under the “Contribute Now” button. There's also the option of sharing on Facebook and other platforms which generates "free" money for us as well (in exchange for advertising the program). We appreciate you being a part of our home buying journey, and we’d be forever grateful for any contributions or shares!
A home for us!
Kayla Brown /
We are so excited to be buying a home! The last step is reaching our down payment goal. We are using HomeFundIt to make it easy for friends and family to contribute to our down payment. Click “Contribute Now” on this page to give online with a debit or credit card. As an added bonus, we will get $2 for every $1 raised, through a lender matching grant on a portion of your donations. There is also an online shopping feature called “UpIt” where a percentage is pledged back to our down payment. So when you shop, make sure you stop by our campaign page first and visit the UpIt Store link under the “Contribute Now” button. We hope you’ll be a part of our home buying journey, and we’d be forever grateful for any contributions or shares!
