We met at Calvary Baptist Church in Canon City, Colorado when their usual pianist was out of town, leaving an open position for their monthly church service at a local nursing home. My grandfather, who was the youth pastor at the time, recommended my piano-playing skills, and I traveled the two hours south for the afternoon to meet the bunch before accompanying them at the nursing home. While we talked off and on for the next five years, our relationship didn't really take off until Spring 2016 when Ben went to Honduras on a missions trip. What can I say? Distance makes the heart grow fonder!

For the longest time, Ben tried proposing to me, but, always ever accepting of any challenge that comes my way, I kept figuring out his plans. Ben was trying to move up to Denver; I was going to school and planned a vacation to Scotland at the end of the semester; needless to say, Ben had limited time to fit in a whole proposal. At my birthday party, almost all of our Sunday School class was in attendance. Prior to that day, he acquired letters of advice from spiritual leaders and mentors in both our lives, and he put those letters in individual hand-crafted boxes he painted and decorated beforehand. The very last gift I received was a great big basket with a blue bunny, a bundle of roses (which I later found out he'd planned to match to my outfit!), the boxes with the letters, and finally a box with the ring in it. He got down on one knee in front of all our friends and family, and the rest is history!