Our Story, Piece by piece

We went to high school together but funny thing is, neither of us remember our first encounter. Ebony: I knew Gina before him. I remember seeing him sitting patiently in his classroom as I passed by in the hallway, walking to my next class and thinking, "he's so different from all these other guys"...I admired him even then. Gene: I remember her "twerking" in front of me in her cheerleading skirt (I kid). But seriously, we passed by each other in the halls and I saw her when I tried out for cross country. I also recall her beautiful smile and laughter. She was very wholesome and "looked" innocent. Throughout school, we always spoke and communicated. I was blessed to receive a letter after my graduation, encouraging me to do great things and to be sure I kept in contact and I wrote back to her. I still have her letter to this day.

We reconnected through Facebook, or what he calls "Book Face". Gene: Let's see, I recall being on "Book Face" and receiving a message from Ebony, just checking in and seeing how I was doing; it had been a long time. We communicated via Messenger on and off for some time. During the course of that time, we caught up on each other's lives and laughed several times. That's one thing I've always appreciated about her, she loves laughter and I do too. But she also loves life, family, and most importantly...JESUS! Ebony: So, here's how it went down...I saw him active on Facebook one evening and I was very excited to reconnect with him because it had been a very long time. I reached out to him to say hello and see how he was doing. The only thing that crossed my mind at the time was catching up with my friend. From that moment forward, Gene reached out to me every...single...day via Messenger. I had enough of Messenger and asked if we could talk by phone. Little did I realize, he would go on to do the exact same thing every day. Our conversations got deeper and deeper and I thought to myself, he's still a good dude. So, I developed feelings for which he wasn't ready. I respected that honesty. We continued to hang out as friends and EVERYWHERE we went, people thought we were a couple, married, engaged, etc. It started to get annoying because after several months, I thought I'd stop liking him, but I didn't. I even tried...excuse me, moved on but when that didn't work out, I still had the same feelings for him that to this day have not gone away.

We went on our fist "official" date. Gene: Quick back story, I've always enjoyed communicating, believe or not, opening up to Ebony. As she mentioned before, we hung out quite a few times. When I was blessed to be in her presence, she may have seen a plane or two. There were some late nights and early mornings, at Waffle House, Main Event, and Denny's (plane). I'll tell you about that later. Ebony: Here's the thing, I mentioned before that I never stopped liking him, even though I tried to move on. But when I was single, I had paid him a visit in Jefferson City. Before I left and after he prayed traveling mercies, I moved in for our first kiss. Yes, I made the first move. The thing about Gene is, he's literally always been different. He never once tried anything with me, though he could have taken advantage of the fact that I liked him. He was and remains a gentleman. He grounds me when my emotions are elevated. His faith in God is refreshing because he lives it. Gene: So after years, yes years, I decided it was time to take this wonderful woman on an official date, as she calls it. Simply put, she's sweet, we love sweets, so that's what we had...ice cream, great conversation, along with some walking in my other, other home, Walmart. This was the jump start to what has been cultivated to this day, with God, of our beautiful journey.

Ebony: Picture this, Seattle, 2024. We're there for my cousin's wedding and to celebrate my birthday. On my birthday, he said something to me that made me think he wanted to propose in front of an audience of friends and family. So I literally thought I was going back home "unengaged". On our last day there, to kill time, we did some last minute site seeing and attractions, including the Space Needles and Glass Garden. Both were amazing! We came through the glass sculpture museum and finally made it out to the garden that Gene was so anxious to get to...follow Holy Spirit. Gene: My turn...and about time! We made it outside. It was beautiful, y'all. Seas of every color. But the most important one to us was blue. So, we went over and took pictures and I asked Ebony, because I knew it was the moment, to just gaze into the beautiful sea of blue sculptures. I let her know I was done, my knee buckled, and she turned around. I let her know she's my help mate and much more. So, I asked her to marry me, tears and all. After some time, she finally said yes. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Ebony: He got me so good. I knew he had a ring, because I asked him some weeks back, but I did not think he had it on that trip. He didn't seem to try hiding it nor did he seem twitchy. But as I posed for these pictures while gazing at the beautiful sculptures, turned around to find him on his knee, then saw the ring in his hand, I melted. I was overcome with tears of excitement, joy, and disbelief. For the record, it took me time to say yes because was listening to what he was saying and waited for him to ask. Then, I said yes.

In the moment mentioned above, it was as if only Ebony and I were there with God with no one else around. However, God blessed us to previously speak to two gracious couples in the museum. They took photos of us, y'all, and told us their stories. They even captured a picture of us after they'd walked off, of us just enjoying each other. It blessed our hearts. They told us to never stop looking at each other like we did on that day.