My plan was to start the day early, I woke up around 4:30 to get over to Hannah’s to pick her up. Throughout our relationship we've gotten up early, more than a few times, to drive to the mountains to watch the sunrise together. I had asked her the day before if she wanted to catch the sunrise before church and thankfully, it didn't throw her off. With some coffee and a kiss she was ready to go and we headed to the mountains. We made it to our spot just by sunrise. It was a perfect morning with a light fog and coolness in the air. We cuddled close and watched the sun rising over the trees. We talked and laughed while reminiscing over our relationship. I told her we still had some time before church if she wanted to go to Poinsett Bridge. I knew she would want to because it's one of her favorite places. The plan was going smoothly. I was getting nervous now. Not that she wouldn’t accept, but just the magnitude of the next step we were taking. The ring was burning a hole in my pocket and I knew that I needed to do it as soon as we got down there or she'd know something was up. I took her to the water's edge and the sun was shining through the trees. Perfect. I reached into my pocket and started the music I had picked for this moment. Music filled the space around us and I could see in her eyes that she knew. I began to read the words I had written for her. I knew I couldn’t have expressed it the way I wanted in the pressure of the moment. About half way through I broke down and cried and Hannah did as well. We took breaks throughout the letter just holding each other. When I finally made it through all that was left was the one final question. I got down on my knee and offered the ring. She kind of laughed a little and started to say something, but then said, "Yes, yes of course!" I hugged and kissed her and then I realized I had the box upside down and she couldn't even see the ring when I proposed! We laughed and honestly, it couldn't have been more perfectly us.

The year I met Colton was a huge travel year for me. I was out of the country every 2 months and it was incredible! I really wasn't looking for a relationship and was honestly pretty terrified at the thought of one. On the first of October, I called my oldest friend and was just talking on the phone like you do with someone you've known over half your life. This went on for about 20 minutes and then he said, "Hey, I'm going to go hang out with Colton for a few hours so I'll call you back." and I sarcastically said, "Ooh! Is Colton single and attractive?". Then I heard a voice that wasn't my friend say, "What?". Apparently, my "friend" had me on SPEAKER PHONE for the last 20 minutes and this random guy had heard everything I said! I stumbled over something like, "You had me on speaker?! So rude?! I'm so sorry, Colton was it? I'm gonna go." I was so embarrassed, but he must have liked what he heard because a few hours later, when I was with my sister, I got another call from my so-called "friend". He asked me if I'd be willing to get set up on a date with Colton. After the earlier call, they looked me up on Facebook and he was really interested in meeting me. My stomach dropped, but I realized that I had no good excuse not to meet this guy and so I agreed. Then my sister and I immediately Facebook stalked him, and I definitely liked what I saw! We met on a group date October 8th and we never really stopped talking after that. About a month after we met, I was about to go to Africa on safari and I told him that we probably wouldn't be able to talk for most of those two weeks because of the remote locations and he came up with the idea to write to each other while I was away. We chose notebooks and wrote to each other every day while I was gone. Those notebooks helped us realize our feelings were growing deeper for each other and they are so cherished. At Christmas, he sweetly asked to officially date and 3 years later, here we are! Thank the Lord for speaker phone!