We’re getting married!

Our story is one that starts over 12 years ago in, of all places, the Shelby YMCA swimming pool. I was an upperclassman bullishly thinking any freshman would love to go out on a date with me, no matter how out of my league she may have been. To this day I can remember seeing her walk into practice the first night and being blown away by her beauty. After using the swim team "call chain" to get Hayley's number, I called her one night for a reason I can't even remember, but just to make sure she had my number and knew I had hers. After weeks of talking, flirting, going on "dates," I thought it would be romantic to ask her to make things official over the Holidays. Hayley clearly did not share my romanticism as she declined the first time, but eventually gave into my persistence. Over the years we always managed to keep in contact, "bumping" into each other in the most unexpected places and always felt (at least I did) that the spark we had was never lost no matter where life took us. There was an undeniable connection that I thought was incredibly rare and something I constantly thought about. We could just never seem to get the timing right. Until the summer of 2016.. with both of us beginning new chapters in our lives, hers as a college graduate and mine as a career change, I think we both realized there was one constant that we always thought about and that was the love we shared for each other. That summer amidst new careers, relocations, and starting new chapters we really recognized how important we were to one another.

(Some) may say it was a long time coming and I don't know that I would disagree. Throughout our entire relationship, Hayley and I have had a tendency to do things our own way and at our own pace. Looking back on it now, I probably should have been a little more concerned that she wasn't pressuring me to propose, but I digress. Deep down, I think I always knew, since that first day of swim practice, she would be the one I'd be getting down on one knee for and with that much buildup, the question became how? How do you properly propose to someone you've been waiting for, thought about, and dreamed of proposing to for nearly 10 years? The answer is, there is no perfect way. What I concluded was that the most important thing was that we did it OUR way. I had been carrying the ring for months waiting for what I thought would be the perfect opportunity. The opportunities came and went as something small just didn't feel right until the morning of February 7th, 2021. From the moment I woke up, it felt different. I felt it in my heart that I could not wait another day. I couldn't continue to wait for a perfect moment and I couldn't go another day without letting Hayley know that I wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. I went to Church that morning with a bit of a pep in my step and prayed for confirmation that today was the day and felt that confirmation, it was the day- our day. I returned from church just as Hayley was submitting a massive assignment for school and insisted we took Boomer for a walk in the blizzard that was happening... on the coldest day of the year. Despite the bitter temperatures and deep snow, we laughed, we hiked, we froze, and midway through our hike, in the silence of the winter air and without a single person around, I got on one knee and asked Hayley to be my wife.