Stephen and I both attended Bethlehem Catholic High School. Although we knew of one another at our small school, we did not formally meet until I was a Senior and he was a Junior. (Yes, I am older than Stephen!) During my Senior year, I was a wrestling manager and Stephen was a wrestler. My duties as a manager included filling water bottles, videotaping, and covering up Stephen's ringworm with makeup! (Which he had A LOT of and still does in college! Some things never change!) When I graduated in 2015, I never thought I would see anyone from high school again... but I was wrong. It wasn't until I was given Stephen's number from a mutual friend's mother that I texted him and the rest of our relationship is history! (Yes, I texted Stephen first!)

It was the summer of 2018 and I had just returned back to Stephen from a 3 week trip in Zambia, Africa. While I was away, he decided to sneakily go to my house and ask my dad for his blessing! For our 2 year anniversary, Stephen wanted to do something special. He instructed me to take off work July 20th for this "special surprise trip." The location was supposed to be a surprise until one night we were driving home when Stephen said, "I can't hold it in anymore, I need to tell you where we are going, its Canada!" Before I could stop him, he already blurted it all out and while at first the surprise seemed ruined, I was excited. On July 20th, I was packed and ready to leave at 3 AM for our 6 hour drive! While a couple thoughts of engagement ran through my mind, I decided not to dwell on them. Upon arrival, we went adventuring to see the Falls, which our hotel also overlooked! Then Stephen started to act strange when he said he left me at the hotel by myself. At this point, the photographer that he hired - picked him up and took him to the location where he was going to propose! Once he came back, he told me to get ready because we were going to a butterfly and botanical garden before heading to our anniversary dinner. When we arrived at the garden and started walking around, I looked to my right to see a man in the bushes with a huge camera but I decided to not think much about it. First, we stopped at an empty water fountain. Then, we began to walk down the most beautiful isle of trees. Stephen started to slow down until he told me to close my eyes and stood behind me. That was when it began to hit me and I knew he was about to pop the big question! I was crying before I was allowed to open my eyes! I looked to my left and there he was, on one knee, asking me to marry him. That is about all I remember since the rest of what he said went over my head! I said YES, obviously, and the mysterious man with the huge camera from the bushes came out to meet me!