A few weeks into our sophomore year of college at Point Loma Nazarene University, I (Hannah) was sitting in the cafeteria with my lovely roommate Sarah who pointed across the caf and said "Hannah what do you think of that guy?" The guy she was pointing at was sitting a few tables away with his roommate Austin. This guy was a cutie for sure and definitely my type, but boys were not really a priority in my life at the time. "I don't really know him at all, but he's kinda cute (vast understatement)". "Cause I heard he has a huge crush on you." Little did I know at the time, that not only did Wyatt not have a crush on me, but he did not even know who I was. Additionally, Sarah's boyfriend, now husband Hudson would tell Wyatt the same lie a few days later. Find yourself some tricky friends, it'll be great for your love life. So, Hudson and Sarah insisted on setting the two of us up on a little get-to-know-you date where we ate dinner at the caf and went to Created Space (an event at PLNU that happens every month where we do art and listen to worship music) and spent an hour painting and chatting about school, life, our families, and hobbies. Wyatt and I became fast friends after that night; spending countless hours going on walks, eating in the caf, hammocking around campus, and walking through the good and tough times of college. I fell for Wyatt far faster than Wyatt fell for me. It was something about his passion for the Bible, strange quirks and hobbies, and the way he made me feel safe to open up about my thoughts, dreams, and fears. I slowly won Wyatt over and we became official March 12, 2017.

I (Wyatt) was absolutely certain that Hannah was the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with a long, long time ago. We had discussed engagement and marriage at length for over a year before we were engaged and I decided that I didn't want to wait to start planning and working out life with her. During Easter weekend 2019, I drove up to Orange County from PLNU to ask her parents blessing and her father's permission, under the guise of going to visit my sister in the area. Robert Matthews grilled me with questions for 45 minutes, in what has been the best and most nerve wracking conversation of my life. It is no small thing, asking a father for his blessing in a permanent union with his only daughter. In the weeks leading up to popping the question, I convinced myself over and over that I was going to wait until the summer after we graduated; as was Hannah's preference. But, I simply couldn't stand to leave that era of our lives behind without beginning a marriage covenant with my best friend. I decided that it would happen on the last day of finals week, of our last semester at college. I asked her to walk with me to watch the sunset every night of our last week. On the last night of the last week, we ventured down to Sunset Cliffs, ate Thai food on a blanket and reminisced on the good, the bad and the great things about the last 4 years at school and the last 2 years of our relationship. At 7:25 PM I cracked open our journal, a small book we share back and forth, filled with our musings about scripture and one another, and I began to read to her some things I had written about her. At 7:31 I finished my little rant about how much I loved her, got down on my knee, flipped the journal to the back pages where I had cut some pages to fit the ring into, and asked her to be my wife. After a long pause and a lot of tears, Hannah looked me firmly in the eyes so there could be no confusion as to her seriousness and said (emphatically) "YES OF COURSE I WILL"!