We’re getting married!!

I met Ryan in a place where I never thought that I would find my life partner. In our local church Redmond Assembly of God. I hadn’t been to church in a long time. My wonderful Nana took me as much as she could. I think I had seen Ryan in passing. But one morning, the church did something different, we were to meet new people. I’m not always the most adventurous person; I tend to stick to myself. But Ryan that morning B-lined it for me! He came right up to me with those blue contacts that he had. I couldn’t help but want to stare. I found him attractive and wanted to know more about him because he had this sparkle. We talked and hit it off. We had a lot of common things and thoughts which felt comforting. And that’s when Ryan and I started to want to hang out outside the church.

I think for everyone knowing if that person is your forever. I grew up having parents that loved each other and so did Ryan. I would ask my parents how they knew. They would say, when you know you know. I would get frustrated because it didn't make sense to me back then. It does now! Everything with Ryan seemed to flow and just be right. But most of all the gravitational pull to want to be together all hours of the day made us inseparable. Starting with pickleball and ending with, "I wish you didn't have to leave." After a while, I was able to come up with the wording to describe it to others. Everything clicked there are no gaps to where we wanted to be in the present and future.

It was one of those days that seemed ordinary and a little cold. I Had been away in Arizona for a week to visit some family. We were headed to Bend on a date. We had been having a good time wandering around the shops and exploring. We had come up to the Old Mill Bend bridge. The fags were light blue, purple and white. We had gotten to the top of the bridge and I turned to look at the water. Ryan was down on one knee holding a beautiful ring. I laugh a little and have tiers in my eyes. He asked me to marry him and I said yes!