I met Christopher through an on campus ministry called Cru. We were in the same Bible study and would run into each other across campus every now and then. I asked him to my sorority semi formal at the end of freshman year. He didn’t reply to me for over 24 hours, so I had to hide from him during Dia del Oso (a Baylor holiday where students get a day off to hangout & have fun), which happened to be the day after I texted him. I was mortified and thought he ghosted me. Turns out he’s just a really bad texter! We ended up going and had a good time. We even shared an ice cream at Katie’s frozen custard that night! Three years later, through COVID, me moving to Dallas for nursing school, snow storms, & Chris graduating, he moved back home, which happened to be where I was. His best friend & I went out to get drinks one day and he asked me if I would say yes to going on a date with Christopher. A month later on my birthday, Christopher asked me on a date to a Moroccan restaurant (2 years later we would go to Morocco for a family trip!!), and the rest is history!

Cara and I went on many fun dates before I asked her to be my girlfriend at the rooftop of her apartment building in downtown Dallas. This was a long awaited moment, since Cara had told me she wanted to finish nursing school before I could officially ask her out. As fall passed, our friends may have intentionally left us alone on a few occasions to encourage me to ask her out but I knew the timing wasn’t right. I waited until early December to take a charcuterie board and go watch the sunset dawn on the Dallas skyline, and finally popped the question if she would be my girlfriend to the emphatic response: “I mean yeah sure… I guess so.”

I knew I wanted to marry Cara when we planned to go on a day trip to Colorado Springs, but last minute had to pivot to exploring Phoenix instead. Upon hearing this, let’s just say, Cara was not a happy camper. We embarked on a hike of Piewesta Peak, a hot and arid trek to the summit during mid-day. After trying everything to reassure her we were having fun, I was on my last straw - and absolutely nothing would turn this around. It wasn’t until we were about to descend from the summit that I had one more attempt at trying to make Cara at least laugh or smile that I finally got through. Suddenly our adventure wasn’t a waste of time walking up a hot mountain but a time to laugh about how we ended up there and what we were going to explore next. She reminded me weeks later that “If you can get me to smile in that situation, I’m pretty sure you can get through anything so just remember that.” I knew at this point I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Cara, through thick and thin.

When Christopher asked me to go on a family trip to San Miguel, no part of me thought I was saying yes to going on a trip I was getting proposed to on. My flight got super delayed, so we last minute bought a ticket on Viva Aerobus just so I could join in on the family fun. The morning of the proposal we went to the hot springs where Christopher payed for everyone, saying it was a special day.. I was confused but just went along with it. I asked him that day when he was going to propose to me, fully thinking it was going to be in August near my birthday. When we got back to our airbnb, I was exhausted and wanted to take a nap, but Christopher was adamant we go to town and go on a date night and take pictures. Confused because we were on a family trip, I suggested we ask his sister if she wanted to tag along and he said no just me and you! He offered to iron my dress for the date night that had been crumpled in my suitcase, and asked if I was going to shower and put makeup on. Annoyed that he wanted all these things done, I told him I was tired and just needed to take a nap. When we finally were ready to leave the house, his hands were sweaty, but he played it off and I didn’t suspect a thing. We sat down at a bench and he told me he was going to read me a note. When he was done reading the note, I noticed he didn’t read till the end of the note.. Confused again, I looked over his shoulder and saw the bottom said “will you marry me?” Psyching myself out, I told myself he would pull out the note in a couple of months to reread it to me! Surely it won’t be tonight. All of a sudden I had to use the bathroom really badly! After running around town trying to find a bathroom, we went to a park where he sat me down again and asked if he could read the note again. All I remember was all of a sudden I couldn’t see from all the tears welling up and he was asking me to stand up so he could kneel and ask me to marry him. After the proposal, we strolled up Calle Aldama, one of the prettiest streets in the Americas, with the backdrop of a beautiful sunset.