Early October, 2018, I’m sitting in my room doing my normal routine when I see a notification pop up on my phone. It’s from someone I’m not sure if I know. I open the message and it says something like “omg I’m listening to this song right now” I had posted a song that I thought would be a fun listen for others. Little did I know it would lead me to the woman of my dreams! Astoncia and I started talking over text while she was in Tokyo, Japan. We likely crossed paths in high school as she went to Woodstock and I went to Huntley (same county), but this was our first time really getting to know each other. It slowly grew to a face time every week to, every day, to every hour. The time change was tough, but we spent every second we were both awake together (virtually). There was a weekend she was going to be in Chicago so I confidently decided I was going to be in Chicago and we would finally get together in real life. We grabbed coffee in the Woodstock square and talked for 2-3 hours. I don't know what about, but I remember being super nervous and hoping I would leave a decent impression. A few months later, I told her I loved her and then asked her to date. Maybe out of order… but who’s keeping track. We dated for about a year and a half where there were ups and downs in both of our lives, living most of it from thousands of miles away. Astoncia made the brave move here to Kentucky for the last 7-8 months and I couldn’t be more thankful to have her here. She stepped into the unknown and trusted God that it would all work out. As we got to know each other, one thing I will always remember is how I always hated talking on the phone, but with her, I loved it.

There was a moment when God gave me a comfort about asking Stonce to marry me. I had been waiting on that moment my whole life. Now the only thing to do was to get the ring and do the darn thing. Once I had the ring picked out (thanks Pinterest) I had to come up with a plan. My buddy Austin had already been planning to do a photoshoot with Astoncia and I (she loves them) and we had a date picked out already. So naturally I paired our engagement with one of her favorite things! The day began and I couldn’t stop looking at her, knowing what this day would come to (if she said yes lol) We started the day with church where she lead worship and crushed it! Then we got some lunch and went our separate ways for a bit. Around 6-7 we got together for the shoot and walked around the city taking scenic photo’s when we finally ended up on the top of a parking garage with a view of the city. She said when we got up there that “it felt like LA” with the views and the weather. We started posing for some shots and Austin gave me the look like “it's go time” and so I got down on one knee, actually was down there waiting for her to turn around for what felt like an hour lol. Eventually she turned around and her first word was “REALLY?!” It was a sweet moment I shared some of my favorite things about her and she did in fact say “yes”. We got together with some friends after to celebrate a perfect day. We are so thankful for everyone who has invested in our lives and we cannot wait to celebrate!