The first memory I have of Erika, I was a freshman in college. It was the first week of school, and I was sitting with my freshly made friend Marcus Peterson in the parking lot at college. We were just talking getting to know each other a little bit better, when we saw a group of young ladies walk out of the building across from us, and one of them caught my eye. That girl was Erika. I didn’t get a chance to talk to her then, but a couple weeks later, while getting some boba with Marcus, Erika and her sister Mili happened to show up at the same time we were there! We all talked for a little while, I didn’t really talk to Erika as much as I would have liked to, but it still was a good first impression. Over the next year or two, we got to know each other better and slowly became friends. We even worked together for a short period of time at Chipotle, all while being “just friends.” Eventually I got up the nerve to ask her to the spring formal her senior year, and as they say, the rest is history.

I met Ricky for the first time while having dinner with my sister. Ricky and his best friend Marcus happened to show up after church one Sunday evening at the same restaurant that we did and so we ended up talking for a little bit. I honestly talked to Marcus more that night than Ricky, but they were both pleasant company to keep. Over the next couple of years, we became friends. Our relationship grew in a healthy “just friends” way, and we even ended up working together for a couple of months. One day, he asked me out to the spring formal, and I said yes? Awkward, long story, but we ended up going to the spring formal and one more date before I graduated in May. He left for the summer on an evangelist course, and I went home to start preparing to be a kindergarten teacher in the fall. After 4 months of phone calls and letters, he came back to the West Coast, and our relationship bloomed from there. Fast forward two years later and we are now engaged and about to start on the rest of our lives together! I could not be more happy with the man God put in my life, and His perfect plan for us both.