We’re getting married!

I knew this second time around was different. Chelsea was different, we were different. Chelsea was intentional with dating for marriage, as was I. Almost 6 months into our relationship I decided to ask Chelsea to marry me. December 7, 2024 this was the day I decided to pop the question. I knew that the beach was Chelsea's happy place, so all that was left was to find the perfect spot to ask her. I asked my good friend Eric, and he mentioned a few good spots. I ended up choosing " the secret garden". Chelsea had a feeling, the big ring box in my pocket all day gave it away. We started at Coopers Hawk where we had our first date, and than we ventured out to the beach, and walked by 4 other proposals and I had to keep saying " this isn't yours". Chelsea than for sure knew. My brother and sister in law set up. I had her open up a gift of a family portrait, that she ended up dying from laughter at. The picture was a little distorted. We had good laughs, and than she looked in front of her and I was on one knee. She Said "Yes". It was a beautiful evening, we watched the sunset, and enjoyed some fruit, and than headed out for some pizza shortly after to celebrate.

Its easy to love her because of her kind, and serving heart. Her love for Jesus, and outreach, the way she loves me, with her acts of services such as baking cookies, her equal love for food, and how she loves Duke.

His love for Jesus. I knew when he prayed over me one night that he was the one for me. I knew that if we continued to put Christ as the foundation in all our choices, we could get through anything. He is a hard worker, he is passionate about what he does, he's a provider, a protector. His forehead kisses, his love for food, his delayed stubborn "Im sorry's".. , and I love his random bloom surprises.

To having a love for Christ and doing outreach, to sharing our favorite desserts together such as cookie cake or cheesecake, to eating our way through Michelin star restaurants, to our love for golden doodles, to just wanting to sit and watch sitcoms and movies, to traveling, and hiking, to being around family, and seeking to have an amazing family one day, to cooking, to doing new projects, to reading books together, to reaching a future of philanthropy, pastoring, and kids orphanages, and missions. We love to be together.

We met through a mutual friend, Jason, at a cookout back in 2019. John had pursued and pursued a few times, and I was just not budging. I finally said "yes" to dinner, with intentions.. of seeing what his friend was like.. whoops. I know.. I am terrible. I ended up falling for John during the dinner.. he was a godly man, he was funny, and I knew he was a hard worker… I wanted to get to know him more. We ended up on our first individual date shortly after where.. JROHN came out, and we just ended up having the best times. It was a few months in where we just knew, we knew we were it for each other. We had 2.5 years of amazing years… from eating our way through south tampa, traveling, spending time with each others families, and friends. It felt like home. Fast forward 3.5 years later... things got rough. We had experienced a lot of things that your marriage season would probably experience. The problem was.. we weren't married so we didn't feel we needed to tackle it the same way as people in a marriage do. We felt we didn't need to preserve it, we could just keep doing what we were doing. We started having unhealthy conflict, getting caught up in our own selfishness. We scheduled for counseling, canceled appointments. We started just doing our own thing. God spoke to John one day and it was instant.. John broke up with me and moved with a friend and said we were being disobedient to God. Props to John.. for taking a step towards obedience to Christ. I knew in my heart something had to change. Fast forward to 2024.. we were broken up for 1.5 years .. something happened, God moved. In that time frame, I was focusing on pursuing Christ like no other, I didn't know what God was doing, nothing made sense, I was in my 30's.. working a teaching job.... all my family was up north. I just pursued Christ. I got involved with church wholeheartedly, went to small groups, got involved serving, met amazing godly people. I started doing outreach, I started reading my Bible even more than I ever did.. and read the whole Bible. I was thirsty for Christ. I gave up my deepest desire, being a wife and having kids. I still tried to communicate with John for that time frame and he wouldn’t budge but July 2024.. God worked on Johns heart. God worked on both of our hearts. It was like a whole heart change towards each other. God rewrote our love story shortly after that. It took almost 6 months, and we were engaged. Doing things God way, truly reaped the benefits. God is still performing miracles today, I mean it’s a miracle we even could be in the same room literally now.. and now are getting married. God heals, God restores, and God can rewrite things so beautiful in his time. John and I are so blessed to be able to be chosen to be each others spouses, and we are so appreciative that God decided to choose us for the gift of marriage. We are not sure what God has for us in the future, but we know that Gods purpose always prevails. Proverbs 19:21. We will continue to be obedient and seek the Lord and see what God has in store for us, and this gift of marriage.