In 2011, Austin & Jordan met at a week-long service camp in Douglas, GA called Camp One Fifty-One where students repair homes for people living in poverty. Jordan was returning for her second year of camp (& was really only around because her uncle was the camp director) & Austin was a first-timer who had been muscled into coming by his older brother. As fate would have it, they landed on the same home site. The week was spent repairing the roof of a double wide trailer. One might say that Austin quite literally “fell” for Jordan. At the beginning of the week, he stepped on a soft spot on the roof & fell straight through. Luckily, a washing machine in the home below caught his fall. Smooth. When camp ended, both Jordan & Austin were aware that he had developed feelings for her, but because of the two-year age difference & the distance between their homes, friendship seemed like the logical next step. Between visits to Coffee County football games, sips of wine on the shores of the Almalfi coast (it was legal there, Mom!), & countless COFO parody songs, the Lords & the Calhouns became incredible family friends. So when Austin graduated from Flagler College, it was only natural that he called & invite Jordan to join his family for the ceremony & a fun weekend in Saint Augustine. Of course, she obliged. During the festivities, Austin realized that he couldn’t wait any longer to go after Jordan. As they spent time together & Austin spent time in prayer, he realized for the first time in his life that it might not be so crazy to chase down the girl he’d always pined after. Two months went by before the two reunited at Camp One Fifty-One & Austin made his move. One month after their ninth summer camp together, Jordan and Austin had their first date in St. Augustine, Florida and have been together ever since.

Before COVID-19 hit, Austin had grandiose ideas of how to propose. He had been working with one of Jordan’s coworkers, Archie Rish, since early February to pull off the perfect proposal in a place that meant something to them both. When the quarantine hit and his original idea fell through, Austin scrambled to revise months worth of meticulously scheduled planning. Austin and Archie quickly whipped up a fake plan to get Jordan to GracePointe Church in the midst of the quarantine. Archie asked Jordan to write a script for a short video announcing the cancellation of the church’s summer camp and to meet him at the church on Thursday, April 24th at 11:30 a.m. to help film it. The only reason she didn’t arrive decked out in camp colors was because the church’s worship pastor had asked her to be a part of the worship music filming that day! Once 11:30 rolled around, Jordan headed to the children’s area to meet Archie. At his insistance, she didn’t go in before he arrived because he “had something cool to show her.” They walked into the dark room together and before they could flip on any lights, Jordan was greeted by the warm glow of candlelight and her coworker quickly exiting behind her. Austin proposed in one of Jordan’s most treasured places, The Village at GracePointe Church, surrounded by antique lanterns and backed by a beautifully painted Bible verse created by a dear friend. She doesn’t remember much of what he said to her, but they both remember that she said “yes” and that’s all that counts.