We met for the first time in 2009. I, Janie, was in the 5th grade and Andrew was in 4th. We started out as friends, and then he became best friends with my brother, Sam. He spent many weekends with my family, including family trips and holidays. My family loved him, and both of our parents were not-so-secretly rooting for us to get together! The day after my highschool graduation (May 28, 2017) we started dating. We’ve had many adventures together including church camps, dates to Sal’s in Henderson, many fake proposals, two trips to see Sarah and Levi (Andrew’s sister and brother-in-law) in Tennessee, and also two trips with my family to Arkansas for hiking! After Andrew graduated highschool (2018), he moved to Letourneau in Longview, where we will be living in married dorms after the wedding. Before we were engaged we had already picked our wedding day and planned to visit with Sarah and Levi and get our engagement pictures taken during Christmas break. December 11, 2018 Andrew told me we were going out for supper, but were going to the Dixie Lake Road first, which is where we had our first date. Before we went, he took me to get our usual half-and-half sweet tea, and asked if we could take engagement pictures without a ring. After being answered with a definite “NO,” he said we would have to postpone our engagement pictures during Christmas break. I was a little sad and upset, but we went down to our spot before we went to eat supper. We got out of his car as the sun went down and he hugged me from behind. He took a couple of steps back and said, “This would be a perfect time to propose,” as he did a couple of nights before at our college group meeting. He knelt down and I just thought it was another fake proposal. Then he pulled out a beautiful silver ring (which is his great grandmother’s 25th anniversary ring) and asked me to marry him. I was shocked since there was a ring that time, but quickly said yes!