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Joel and laura Pulis

Married: June 21, 1997 offspring: a daughter, 10-year-old Grace

Joel and Laura Pulis have known each other since they were toddlers. daughter go on a date,” Laura says. oc 1/3 3 items

In a snapshot from the ’70s, they are sideby-side, wearing plastic store-bought Halloween costumes and looking off in different directions, both happy.

Joel grew up in Oak Cliff, and Laura in DeSoto, but they attended Cliff Temple Baptist Church, and their parents were friends.

Tension between them first bubbled up in the summer of 1988, on a mission trip to California, when they were in seventh and eighth grades. He liked her, but she liked another boy. The following summer, “Laura and another girl were supposedly interested in me, but I played the coy one,” Joel says.

But in January 1990, he picked her up in his dad’s SAAB convertible and took her to the old Hard Rock Café on McKinney Avenue.

Then, the weekend before he turned 16, friends of Laura’s called up Joel and told him he should ask her out.

“He got his license, and he wrote me a really sweet letter to ask me out on a date,” Laura says.

She was 14, and she wasn’t sure her parents would let her go.

“I’m not sure I would let my 14-year-old

They dated that semester and all through the summer. But when Laura returned to

“our parents were friends, and they knew everybody in the church, so we had about 700 people at our wedding. it was just cake and punch, but it was fun.”

DeSoto High School in the fall, she decided she wanted to date other boys.

“I broke his heart,” she says, patting his arm.

After going out with another boy one time, Laura says, she realized it was a mistake. They promptly reunited and dated all through high school. When Joel graduated,

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the advocate Foundation’s limited-edition, numbered, gift for the new home owner or dallas transplant. sales benefit neighborhood organizations. 214.292.0486 foundation.advocatemag.com he chose Baylor University because Laura’s mom had gone there, and that’s where he knew Laura wanted to go.

“I sort of followed her and preceded her to Baylor,” he says.

They stayed together all through college, and they wed at Cliff Temple Baptist Church in June 1997.

It was a huge wedding. The bride and groom each had nine attendants.

“Our parents were friends, and they knew everybody in the church, so we had about 700 people at our wedding,” Laura says. “It was just cake and punch, but it was fun.”

The couple returned to Waco so that Joel could finish a divinity degree, and they settled in Kings Highway in 1999. Laura, 37, is an interior designer, and Joel, 39, works for Cliff Temple.

The Pulises say their marriage is strong because they were friends for six years before they started dating, and when they did get together, they took things slow. They trust each other. They’re willing to sacrifice for one another. And they admit when they’re wrong.

“We don’t fight a lot, and neither of us is hot headed,” Joel says. “But when we do get into disagreements, both of us are quick to own up to their side.”

They’ve noticed friends who joke about breaking up, as in, “If you ever grow a mustache like that, I’ll divorce you.”

Joel and Laura say they would never even joke about divorce.

“We made a commitment to be together, and that’s it,” Joel says.