Our story begins with Jacob and I meeting at Grace Church when my family and I had moved to Massachusetts in 2009. We both attended the youth group and had mutual friends but were never really interested in each other. One summer we both went to camp with our church. There we began to talk and start a friendship. By the end of the week we were talking. Me only being fourteen at the time was not allowed to date. Jacob told me he’d wait for me and we continued to talk and get to know each other more. In the two years of waiting we gradually grew apart until one day I decided to reach out to him again at church. We picked up right where we left off and soon both knew that we wanted to be in a relationship. Jacob took me on a few “practice dates” as he called them. Apparently, I passed because here we are engaged! He asked me to be his girlfriend April 17, 2015 after a Red Sox game. Since then we have grown together. It hasn’t always been perfect but God has always had his hand in our relationship growing us to love him and each other more along the way. God knew what he was doing when he made us wait. This is how we met, but we know our story doesn’t end here. We are excited to see how God uses us and our marriage. Jacob and I cannot wait for the journey of a lifetime.

At the start of November 2017 Jacob asked my dad for his blessing to propose to me, within a week he had picked and designed a ring to be made. His plan being to propose on Christmas night with our entire family surrounding us. Unfortunately...that didn't go quite as he had planned. Two days before Christmas I was at work about to go on break, when I realized that I had left my phone at home. Naturally I asked to borrow my mom's to text Jacob and let him know that I was still up to hangout after work. As soon as I went to text him I saw the ornament he had made me and the words "Will you marry me?" in bold writing. I text him anyway pretending like I'm not about to cry and throw up. I was so overwhelmed that I skipped break and told my mom. She nervously reassured me that that was just an idea and she "had no idea when he was proposing or how". Obviously I knew she was covering. As soon as I went back to work she texted Jacob and explained the whole situation. When I received the text from Cara that Courtney had found out, my heart must have stopped. Instantly I had to figure out what to do. Do I continue on with the ornament proposal idea or do I find a back up plan to throw her off. My first instinct was to text my mom, instantly she coined the idea of using the succulent arrangement that I had bought as a small gift for her to open on Christmas. I contemplated it and quickly decided that would have to be it. So I had my back up plan. Fast forward to Christmas, and I'm preparing the succulent with the ring placed in it. We get everything all set up and place the succulent under the tree in a gift bag as to make nothing look out of the ordinary. Just basic gift giving and dinner. As we were doing gifts we waited till the end to give Courtney hers. As the story goes she opens it up and tries to act surprised (not aware that I knew she was fully aware of the proposal). Asking me what that (the ring) was, I took it, got down on one knee, and asked her to marry me.