First, I am incredibly grateful to call this beautiful woman my wife soon! Our lives changed on 3.3.19 – the day I asked her to marry me (and of course the day she said YES)! It was the perfect frigid, wintry day where we could barely feel our fingers, or as she stated “a magical winter wonderland.” In all reality, though, we were destined to be and our friends have several stories they would love to share. We were best friends since I moved to Oklahoma City and no one could stop us from wanting to talk to each other so much (probably a bad thing then and still now). She was my first true crush during sophomore year of high school. This didn’t quite culminate into anything until senior year when I finally mustered courage to ask her out to prom dance. Apparently to her, I was this big, goober of a nerd that was always shaking around her because I was nervous (I beg to differ, of course). We dated for 2 years since high school, but distance soon got the best of us as I moved to Virginia for college and she stayed in Oklahoma. Somehow there were bonds that always brought us back, though. Our friends in college used to always joke when we got angry and broke up with each other – “Oh you two are so silly. When you both get married, we will have plenty of stories about how crazy you both were for thinking there wasn’t a future in your midst.” Jessnie was always the naïve one. I mean I practically flirted with her for 6 months during medical school (bringing her coffee and lunch while she studied), asking her out for walks at the lake. She apparently thought I was just being a good friend. I finally got rid of my nerves and asked her out again (begging her to give me ONE last chance). She very hesitantly said sure. These past 3 years have been the most amazing times with the most amazing woman. We absolutely love spending our time together reading books, traveling the world, cooking, spending some good ol’ family time, and pretending like we’re expert hikers.

Basil and I have known each other for a VERY long time! We grew up going to church, being in activities and organizing all kinds of things, together. I remember when he first came to the same high school and thinking “He wore his private school uniform to a public school?!” Little did I know that soon we’d become best friends! We were officers in our youth group, we sat together at lunch, we stayed up hours studying for Sunday School finals, texting/aiming, etc. We went to our senior prom together and dated for a year or so after that. However, distance was too hard for two newly graduated high school kids and afterwards, life led us on different paths. He went away for undergrad and I stayed home. Then he came home for med school and I left. We stayed in frequent contact and I always tease Basil that he called me maybe too often for a mere friend, and now looking back, I’m so glad he made the effort to keep our bond strong all those years we spent apart. I came home for third year of med school and that’s where God started writing our story again. Every day, Basil would randomly drop by to bring me coffee or come straight from rotations to come study with me. It became our routine. I thought he was being the sweetest friend (which I’m still made fun of for)! When he told me how he felt, I couldn’t believe I missed every clue (he gave me so many)! We started dating and then we found out we would be apart again for residency and we were crushed. Though, I initially hesitated at the thought of doing long distance again, I couldn’t imagine a life without him. After all the years of knowing each other, I can’t believe we’re at the chapter in our book where we get married! I’m so excited to start our journey together of binge-watching Netflix shows, instead of on Teleparty, reading books together, instead of over FaceTime and just being together, in the same time zone! To the boy who never gave up on us, I feel the luckiest to get to call you my husband soon!