A lot of love, a little laughter, and Happily Ever After!

We met through a mutual friends of ours...the Internet! Both of us were at the end of our ropes when it came to the hope of meeting someone in person, so we took to the online dating realm to try our luck, and look how lucky we were! Let me set the scene: The app? Hinge. The Day? Some Saturday at the end of April, 2023. The moment? I was sitting on a couch with my mom, trying one last time to look through my dating app after many, many failed attempts of being ghosted and being let down. While on the app going through the people who had liked my profile with mom, we stumbled upon this goofy, adorable, bushy-haired guy...you guessed it, Wesley! As mom and I looked over his profile, we were both struck by this video of him being silly while working on something, and we laughed so hard! While I'd like to say that I immediately lunged for the match button, I had been disappointed so many times before, and didn't know if I had it in me to be disappointed again...but never forget the power of a mother's intuition. Mom had a good feeling about him and she pushed me the extra inch I needed to go for that match button...wow was she right! As cliché as it might sound to say there was an immediate spark, it's the truth! Our messages to each other very quickly became novel length, and from then on...well, you know the rest!

Picture it, Friday, May 5th, 2023. I had just got home from work, excited and extremely nervous for Wesley and I's first date...when all of sudden, I get the dreaded "hey, can you give me a call when you get a minute" text. I immediately was drained of all excitement, as someone who has been ghosted too many times to count, I knew exactly where this was heading...he was going to cancel. Before I could even muster the energy to respond to him, I gave my mom a call. How could this happen AGAIN? What was I doing wrong? You know the train of thought. While I can't remember exactly what my mom said to me, I knew she was on my side supporting me no matter what happened next. So, I got the nerve and called Wesley. On the other side of the phone sat an extremely nervous and severely in pain Wesley who had been dealing with a kidney stone all week. Wesley had been attending a class for work in Charlotte and pushing through his kidney stone as best as he could, hoping and praying that it would clear up by Friday evening, but alas, no such luck. It was time for him to call it and hope that I was the type of person to be understanding and not ghost him. Looks like we both lucked out. Now, when our phone call began and he cancelled I was hurt, but there was no way to deny the pain he was in, you could hear it in his voice, a very nice voice I had thought to myself as we begun talking. I was sure that this was going to be the last we were going to speak to each other until, instead of just saying "we'll reschedule sometime" he asked WHEN I wanted to reschedule, would next Friday work? I was pleasantly surprised but a little hesitant, I had, had tentative plans with my friends to celebrate for my birthday, and did I really want to cancel with him just for the possibility of getting ghosted? God was there with me, I'm sure of it, because something told me to go for it. Take 2! The next Friday, May 12th, 2023 would be the day! We were set for a restaurant called Drake's in Burlington, a perfect halfway point between Reidsville and Snow Camp. Admittedly, I had been a few minutes late, not a surprise to anyone who knows me, I am perpetually a few minutes late to about everything, but when I had pulled up into the parking lot and I saw him standing in front of his car, I said to my mom who I was talking to on the phone, "Oooooh yay! He's really cute!" Getting out of my car I was greeted with beautiful flowers and a gorgeous smile. 6 hours later...the best first date in history ended, and here we are now!

Now those very close to Wesley and I know that we knew pretty early on that we were meant for each other and that we wanted to spend our lives together, so... it wasn't really a huge surprise. Wesley and I talked very openly about how we wanted, or well how I wanted, the proposal to go, we even picked out my ring together, on New Years Eve to be precise. So by the time February had rolled around, I knew that there was a proposal was around the corner and both our moms were getting antsy waiting (haha). Sunday, February 18th, 2024, we had just completed the BEAUTIFUL bookcase that Wesley had built me as Valentine's present. We had painted it together and now were putting it on our bedroom and I was having a field day filling it with all our books, a good 80% of which were mine but who is keeping track? On the flip side of that fun adventure, we had recently just adopted our dog, Olive, and we were having a bit of a rough time. Introducing a new dog into the home had been more stressful than we had hoped as Olive is an adult dog and we had no idea what her history was, and the biggest issue we were dealing with at the time was the fact that she was not housetrained. This made for rather frustrating evenings where we had cleaned up the fourth accident in the house and about had enough. After a venting session where we talked through a lot of things and supported each other like the awesome team that we are, I was making a positively perfect post about the beautiful bookcase Wesley had made me...and Wesley had been stricken by an unexplainable feeling that was now was the right time. Unbeknownst to me, Wesley had been standing by the bed for a few minutes contemplating if this was really the right moment and how he was going to do it, and apparently being very awkward (according to him at least, I was completely oblivious). After I had finished my raving review of my wonderful bookcase, Wesley asked if he could read the post before I posted it, nothing new as I usually like to proofread, and I waited happily for his approval. After a few moments he hands me my phone back and says "That's really great! But, I think you might need to change some things." I gave him a curious look, "What do you mean? It's a great post!" I protested, Wesley shifted gears a bit, "Well maybe not change some thing, but maybe you need to add something." He states. I'm about to ask what he means again when I turn and see him on one knee, and he pops the question! What did I say, you wonder? Well, YES, of course! Was I surprised? Surprisingly, yes! I had know it was coming like I mentioned earlier but it was different than what I had been expecting, and I couldn't be more pleased. Did I cry? Even more surprisingly, to me at least, YES! I had thought that since I knew it was coming soon that I would be touched and emotional of course, but I had NOT been prepared to cry, I guess the Lord had other plans haha! The Lord has truly blessed us in making us for one another and bringing us together, we can't wait to open this new and exciting chapter of our lives, and we are so thrilled to be able to share it with you.