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(Heather): "The first time I met Kile was during his freshman year of college at Maranatha Baptist University. He had come home with his and my twin sister’s mutual friend, Jordan (who is now her fiancé!). We all hung out together at a party, but I honestly don’t remember talking to Kile at all that day. A year later, during my senior year of high school, Kile came home again with Jordan to watch my twin and I play our last high school volleyball game. At this point, my twin (Heidi) and Jordan were dating, but I still didn’t really notice Kile even though we had all gone out to eat and he had met my family. Flash forward another year. It was my freshman year at Maranatha Baptist University. Heidi and her boyfriend Jordan were both at Maranatha too, and since Jordan’s best friend was Kile, our typical hangout group was Heidi, Jordan, Kile, and me. At first, I literally hated it! I can remember sitting in the car next to Kile and being so mad that I had go on double dates and be there with all of them because I wasn’t interested in him. As the semester continued, I started to enjoy hanging out in this group, even though that was the only time Kile and I would talk. Then came Christmas break—meaning a whole month home and away from school and friends. A few times over break the four of us would video chat and one time, Kile threatened to write a song about me being his girl because everyone at school already thought we were dating because they always saw us together with Heidi and Jordan. I told him that he wouldn't but sure enough, he did. The song was all about how I was his girlfriend. I was not, and it was just a huge inside joke in our friend group. Over the next semester, Kile I ate lunch together every day because our schedules worked out and I was very shy, so I really did not have anyone else to eat with or talk to when Heidi was in class. We slowly became closer and eventually realized we were both interested in each other as more than just friends. As he would say, he "wore me down" until I had no choice to date him!"

In October of 2021, after we had been dating for 2 1/2 years, Kile told me he wanted us to do a photoshoot with our photographer friend in Wisconsin as an anniversary present. I was very, very opposed to this idea. In my mind we were hopefully getting engaged soon and would get pictures done around then, so why would we get pictures now? Then I started questioning if our timeline to get engaged was going to get moved back. I complained about getting pictures for so long and we even got into a MAJOR fight about it since Kile and I are both very stubborn and do not give in easily! In the end, I did go to get pictures with Kile but was literally fighting it to the minute of us going to get them taken. We got to the place he had planned to take pictures and we started walking down a trail, stopping every so often to pose for a few pictures. Kile insisted bringing his guitar, which I was also very against (but of course he brought it anyways). We finally came to this boulder where we sat for pictures, and he told me he had a new song he had written and wanted to sing for me. He got his guitar out and sang an amazing song all about our relationship and the different things that he loved about me. When he was done singing, he started talking to me and then pointed down the trail so that I turned around to see what he was pointed at. When I looked, Heidi, my twin was walking down the trail and holding a sign that said, “Will you marry me?”. I was completely shocked both by what the sign said, and that Heidi was even there. She was supposed to be in Michigan, not in Wisconsin! When I turned back to Kile he was down on one knee with the most beautiful ring ever and asked me to marry him. Obviously, I said yes! Kile had literally planned every detail of the day out! After I said yes, my two best friends also came out of the woods where they had been hiding and recording the whole time. Then he told me that my parents and older sister Katie had all secretly traveled from Michigan to Wisconsin as well and that they had all planned a surprise engagement party for us with his parents and my other older sister, Ashley. Kile knew I always wanted our engagement to be a surprise and he couldn’t have done a better job at keeping it a secret and in planning it out so well—down to making sure my best friend got my nails done and had the perfect engagement outfit for the photos that I originally didn’t even want to take. Afterwards, we were able to go celebrate with all our loved ones nearby and just enjoy our time together with family and friends as a newly engaged couple. The day was more perfect than I could have ever imagined!