Rebekah and Colton’s story dates back nearly two decades ago to high school. They met in Spanish class in 2007. Flirtation was there, but throughout the school year neither of them were single at the same time. High school ended. Connection missed. For now. Fast forward to 2011 and a reconnection. Rebekah invited Colton up to San Marcos where she was in college while he was in town from West Point. After hours of catching up, Rebekah swears she was laying it on thick and dropping hints like her life depended on it, but Colton remembers no such thing happening. They each went on with life - Rebekah with college in San Marcos and Colton with college at West Point in New York. Connection missed. Again. For now. Over the next eight years: Rebekah lived and worked in Texas. Colton remained in New York. Rebekah moved to New York. But Colton moved to Oklahoma. Connections missed. Again. For now. As God and dating apps would have it, both of them were living in the Temple-Killeen area in 2019 and “stumbled into” each other on the dating app Tinder. They began seeing each other and the rest, as they say, was history. Connection made. After about a year dating, Rebekah and Colton moved in together, along with her son Mason, and their family began. Together they celebrated the end of Colton’s military career and embarked on a new one which would have them moving in a similar fashion over the next eight years. First, to the southeast. It was a cozy March evening in Georgia in 2022. Rebekah, Colton and Mason celebrated their anniversary at their favorite Tex-Mex restaurant and a fire pit in the backyard afterwards. Rebekah sensed something was up by the way Colton was acting, but he chalked it up to being tired from work. Rebekah was working to start the fire when out of the corner of her eye she saw Mason and Colton approaching her from either side. Mason approached on her left with a ring - a dolphin ring - which was part of a running joke that Colton could propose with a “dolphin ring from a gumball machine” and that should be plenty. Then, there was Colton on her right. He got down on one knee with the ring - no dolphins on this one. It was Colton’s easiest ask and Rebekah’s easiest yes. Connection solidified.