Now, Gabe and I should have met a long time ago. But at the same time, we shouldn't have met for a couple more months. You see, our mutual friends had been trying to get us together for months, but somehow we kept missing each other. However, they were excited to finally set us up at their upcoming wedding which we were both in. They assigned us to walk down the aisle together and hoped that there would be a cosmic connection. Well...Gabe and I had other plans and ended up meeting on the dating app, Hinge, two months before the wedding and match making was to take place. Gabe opened our message conversation with "I think I went to school with your brother" (which he did) and we just hit it off from there! It wasn't until a couple days of talking that we realized we knew all the same people, had all the same friends, and were in the same wedding. It was one of the most obvious "God moments" we've had to date. Gabe was living in Alabama at the time, so we spent weeks talking on the phone, facetiming, and he finally came for a visit. It was confirmed from that moment that all we wanted to do was be together... so yeah, I got him to move to NC about a month later and he's been stuck with me ever since!
Gabe has a knack for making the best of a tough situation... but he took this one to a whole new level. My whole family ended up being in town when Gabe proposed because we were dealing with a family emergency. This emergency involved multiple parties flying to and from Honduras, emergency surgery, lots of tears and worry, and my missionary sister having to take a 3 week break from her mission. Needless to say, it was a very stressful and hard time for me and my family and, of course, Gabe was by my side the entire time. Now...Gabe decided to take advantage of the craziness to take me by absolute surprise. He did this with the help of my family, but particularly my father (those two should never be allowed to plot together...) While my sister was home recovering, my many siblings that are spread around the US all came back home to visit her. We were all together again for the first time in about a year. We were in my family's chapel in our house (what I like to call our upper room) saying some family prayers. Once those were done, my family started to trickle out while my brother set up a camera in the back of the room. Gabe asked if I wanted to stay and say some prayers with him. We were sitting close enough that I could feel his heart beating out of his chest... I was like "umm you good?? Your heart rate is through the roof" (I can't help it, it's the nurse in me). He then said I actually had something in mind I wanted to say. --Not me thinking he's talking about prayers or some bad news of sorts, but instead he grabbed my hand, walked me to the middle of the chapel in front of the alter, got down on one knee, and asked me to spend forever with him. I was shook! Mind you...this was one week after the emergency surgery! But yes...I didn't suspect a thing and was taken by complete surprise and Gabe prides himself on that feat. Of course, my family was downstairs watching the entire thing on my brothers apple watch and was ready with cheers, champagne, hugs, and tears when we finally walked downstairs. The best 10 months of my life brought me to one of the best days of my life. Now onto many more amazing months and many more amazing days.