A husband and wife have renewed their wedding vows as a same-sex couple after one spouse transitioned from man to woman.
Laura Sharp, 35, and her husband had been married for ten years when Neil revealed he was transgender in 2016.
To his surprise, his loyal wife was supportive of the decision and stuck by her partner.
The couple - who have four sons aged one to eight - are now happier than ever after Neil underwent sexual reassignment surgery to become Samantha in March 2018.
The pair, from Phoenix, Arizona, even decided to recreate their wedding day at the same venue as their original ceremony - this time both wearing flowing, white dresses, and had a second honeymoon in Catalina Island, California – the same as last time.
Laura, a music teacher, said: 'Samantha is still the same loving and caring person I married, just with a different exterior.
New life as a wife: Laura (left) and Samantha (right) Sharp renewed their wedding vows, this time as wife and wife, after Samantha underwent gender reassignment surgery in 2018
Before: The couple had been married for ten years when Samantha, then Neil (pictured as a male) came out as transgender in 2016
'Her revelation could have completely torn us and our family apart, but it's brought us so much closer together.'
Samantha, who works in aerospace program management, added: 'It's a relief to finally be myself and the fact that Laura and our family have accepted me for who I truly am means the world.'
Samantha met Laura when they were both studying at the University of Arizona, aged 20.
They were part of the same marching band, playing in support of their college football team at half-time.
'I was immediately taken aback by her beauty,' said Samantha.
'We both played the trumpet so were positioned next to each other and began talking straight away.'
That autumn in 2003 they started dating and by Christmas they were a couple.
In December 2004, Samantha proposed under their favorite tree at Lake Patagonia, Arizona.
Despite being happy in his relationship with Laura, Neil knew that the underlying thoughts he'd been having since he was a child would not just go away.
From the age of five, he remembers feeling as if he was wearing the wrong clothes.
Then, at the age of seven, he remembers going to sleep and wishing he was going to wake up a girl.
The pair, from Phoenix, Arizona, decided to recreate their wedding day at the same venue as their original ceremony - this time both wearing flowing, white dresses
Their new family: The couple has four children ages eight, five, three, and one, and reveal they are happier than ever
'I had never heard of anyone being transgender before, so I couldn't put a name on what I was feeling,' Samantha explained.
'There was no influence to the feelings I was having, but they were unmistakable - it was just who I was.
'It wasn't until my teens that I first heard the term transgender and before then I had no way to describe it.
'I was afraid that something was wrong with me, or that the feelings weren't real, so I tried to push them down, unable to wrap my head around what I was going through.
'I thought I would be cast to the edges of society if I talked about it - it was terrifying.'
When Neil met Laura, their relationship was at the forefront of his mind and so the feelings of dysphoria were overshadowed by his happiness.
But during the lead up to the wedding, Neil had a wobble where he called off the engagement.
'I still had those feelings of confusion, I couldn't deny it, so I had to make the decision whether to tell Laura and risk losing everything, or to suppress it for good,' she said.
'But I was so scared of allowing myself to dwell on the feelings I was having, that I thought ignoring them was much easier for everyone involved.
'I knew I had met someone very special, my partner in life, and didn't want to lose her.
'I thought I could just be stronger and push them away.'
Neil and Laura met at age 20 when they were both students at the University of Arizona and married in 2006. Despite being happy in his relationship with Laura, Neil said he knew that the underlying thoughts he'd been having since he was a child would not just go away
Neil revealed he battled depression and gender dysphoria for so long that he decided he had one of two options: transition or take his own life
The pair got married in March 2006, and although Neil managed to withhold his dysphoric thoughts for a while due to the joy of their special day, it wasn't long before they crept back in again.
Laura knew her husband had always battled depression, and although the pair talked about it and Neil visited a therapist, the root cause was never discussed.
Samantha said she wished that Laura or her therapist had guessed how she was feeling, but they never did as she hid it so well.
'There were no clues, no hints, nothing,' said Laura. 'I was never been able to put my finger on it.'
The pair were delighted to welcome their first son, now eight, in September 2010, followed by three more boys who are now five, three, and one.
Throughout their marriage and watching their boys grow up, Neil still battled constantly with depression and gender dysphoria.
He felt plagued by the thoughts, but tried not to focus on them for fear they would take over completely.
'I was too afraid to grow my hair slightly, or to think about what my name would be if I was a woman,' said Samantha.
'If I gave myself an inch, it would have been too hard to go back.'
But in 2015, he decided it was time to do some research online.
'I found support in other people's stories and being able to put a human face on transition,' she said.
After mustering the courage to come out to his wife, Neil began to transition into Samantha in
