I Have Found the One whom My Soul Loves

Hanna and Wade first became acquainted through some online dating app. It has long been an inside joke about which one exactly since neither one of them remember. They met purely by happenchance and to be honest all because both have a love and passion for scuba diving. Both were at very different points in their lives: Wade was ready to meet The ONE and Hanna was NOT! It is purely by curiosity that Hanna said "Yes" to going to dinner with Wade on May 1st, 2014. The good old Olive Garden in Rapid City was the restaurant of choice. After some awkward conversation, the subject turned to traveling and scuba diving dissolving the tension of a first date. Throughout dinner they hit off, and they’ve been talking ever since!

Wade is not sure when LOVE entered into the relationship, but he swears it was within their first month or so of dating that he knew Hanna was The ONE. For Hanna, it took her best friend, Kerie, saying something for her to admit she was "Head Over Boots" in love with Wade. Since then, their relationship and love for each other has only grown and strengthened through admiration, patience, understanding, and communication. They have already overcame many obstacles that the faint of heart would have thrown in the towel for including deployment, long distance relationship, a move across the country, and renovating a house together. Their love truly is resilient and evident to all.

After months of working on the design of Hanna's engagement ring, it was FINALLY finished and ready. Only now Wade had to figure out the "How" of such a life changing question. After all, Hanna did state early on in their relationship that there was TEN requirements for a marriage proposal. (To this day Wade can recite them, but Hanna can only list 5-7 of them depending on the day!) Wade had just been notified of receiving the Chief Warrant Officer of the Year Award for the National Guard. Consequently, his attendance at the Annual Army Engineering Military Ball at Fort Leonard Wood, MI was requested. When he asked Hanna about attending, her response was "YES!” So he got to thinking that maybe this would be the PERFECT opportunity for a grand proposal. They had traveled from Denver via car together to make the ball. It was raining like crazy all weekend. Wade had decided to do the proposal just prior to attending the ball. He was nervous and acting a little strange while they were getting ready for the ball. Hanna finally noticed something was up because he was pacing the hotel room. Hanna asked him, "What's wrong? Are you nervous?" That's when Wade asked those four magical words "Will you marry me?" Of course she said "YES!! About time!!!" And for the record... Wade did 4/10 "requirements" and she still said "Yes".