I first saw Alaina at her audition into Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in October of 2023. I was completely blown away by her radiant smile and personality that seemed to fill every room she walked into—especially the audition room, where I officially heard her sing. I officially met Alaina at Southwestern Seminary during the Spring semester of 2024, when we first talked and had our initial conversations among friends. From the beginning, I was interested in becoming her friend and getting to know her more. We were both enrolled in the music school, so we often saw each other and had occasional conversations on our way to class—mostly on our way to choir. During the Fall semester of 2024, as we grew closer in friendship, my desire to know her more continued to grow. On one occasion she asked me for Jazz recommendations and I was absolutely elated and made a whole playlist for her. That same semester, I had a conversation with her about where she saw herself in the future. At the time, our ideas looked somewhat different, and because of that, I decided to wait and pray. From there, our friendship continued to deepen, and by the end of the semester, our opportunities to spend time together had multiplied. It became evident that we were both interested in each other. During our Prelude to Christmas concert, we naturally spent more time together within similar friend groups and continued getting to know each other. One night, we went to dinner at Chili’s with a group of friends, but ended up talking just the two of us the entire night—to the point that everyone else started joking about it without us even realizing! During the last week of school, I decided to share how I felt about her. Shortly after, she left for Argentina, and we continued getting to know each other through FaceTime while praying about our future. After Christmas, I was able to meet her parents and family and ask for permission to date her, and we officially began dating on January 1, 2025. Since then, we have grown deeply in friendship and love, and on August 1st, we became engaged. The Lord has been so faithful to us and opened so many doors and allowed for so many sweet people to pour into our relationship! We now joyfully await the opportunity to share the blessing of marriage with you and ask for your prayers as we seek the Lord’s guidance and blessing in our future journey together.