You would think not many great things would come from an unusually hot October Saturday afternoon...but in our case, it was not just great, it was dreams coming true. We met Saturday October 20th, or I should say I met Felisha, because she had no idea who I was. From that afternoon on I knew I had to find a way to see her again. After borderline social media stalking, much searching around from those who knew her, I finally landed a meeting. Yet it did not go as planned... Oddly enough, I left thinking she was not interested at all. Turns out she was very interested but wanted me to pursue her! Needless to say the next few weeks were odd as i was thinking there was nothing there all the while she was waiting for me to pursue her. Finally I decided to just ask the one question I was dying to know & she was dying to hear - could I take her to dinner? (I actually said "what can I do to get a moment with you? Lunch, dinner...snack time, I will take anything!") After finally picking a date I wanted to pull out all the stops for her - Ruth Chris, nice car, new clothes - I went all out! As we arrived to the dinner, set down & ordered, I couldn't contain myself. I looked to my left where she sat and told her "Ms. Starling, I'm going to pursue you until you fall in love with me" how I could I've known how true that would be. The next few months we would experience our first Christmas together, New Years & as many dates as we possibly could but we knew we had a decision, what's next for us? We decided to take it before God, fast, pray and seek God for our future. So we took 3 weeks to seek God's will & laid several things before God for answers. We know it does not always happen this way, but over the next few weeks nearly every prayer was answered and we felt our next step was to plan our wedding to make "us" forever.

Through our dates something that became so important to us was taking communion together. It became quite common for us to spend a portion of our Friday night taking communion and reflecting on all God was doing in our life, so I knew this would be the perfect place to ask her to marry me. As the day I had marked on the calendar got closer and I asked for her hand in marriage from her father, the planning picked up and I knew a picnic on the beach would be perfect! As we arrived at the beach that evening as the sun was going down, we set out our blanket, took communion & I knew it was showtime. I had brought her favorite chocolate as a little surprise. Knowing how much she loved the show "The Bachelor" so I then asked her "you know what goes good with chocolate? A rose...". I think at this point she knew this wasn't a usual Friday night. (I also made a pretty cheesy Bachelor joke about accepting the rose that she gave me a courtesy laugh on)... As I reached into the basket for the third time I asked "Do you know what goes with a rose?...a ring" as I pulled out a small black box. My next sentence set the wedding into motion as I asked her "Felisha, will you marry me?" As the tears began to flow she said yes...thank God

Exactly one year from the day we met we will be getting married. October 20th, has been a very special day for both of us and we are so excited to share this special moment with you.