After a few years of obtaining more awkward date stories than I would’ve truly preferred, I had kind of had enough of the “first date” world. Needless to say, I had to have a little coercing from my mom when me and Cody matched online and two days later, agreed to have our first date. “What do you have to lose?” she had said. So we went to a Starbucks near the school Cody works at and I had planned a dinner I had to make at 5:30 (ya know, in case this was just another awkward first date story to add to the book). The next hour and a half was full of simple “get to know you” questions and easy conversation. Enough for us both to decide “yeah I’d like to see you again!” That next week, Cody had called and asked me to go on another date. Taking it up a level, our date consisted of him accidentally meeting my dad, dinner at “So Italian,” and dessert at a nearby ice cream joint, “Wyliepalooza.” This second date has always been the one Cody and I look back on and agree that something changed for both of us that night. We sat and talked of what we dreamed our lives would be one day, and began opening up about our faith to one another. I’ll never forget sitting and talking with him in a bright neon colored booth as I nervously, barely touched my ice cream that night, thinking “something’s different here.” The next few months would consist of me getting to know one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met- full of making dinners together, ALOT of ice cream, cookie making, a crash course on learning football (all while simply learning to date during football season), geocaching, introducing one another to our friends and family, and so much more. The whole thing is so surreal to look back on, and the funny thing is, I never saw it coming.

So there we were on a balmy December evening, Jordyn sitting on the counter in my kitchen, me listening to her talk about something (don’t remember what). All I remember is having the thought, “oh yeah, It’s her.” I knew then that I wanted to marry this woman. We would spend the next couple months talking about marriage and what we hoped our future would be. I planned to propose to Jordyn in early April, but that proved impossible because we were in the middle of a month of quarantine consisting of virtual dates, and another 2 weeks of “6 foot dates.” We started getting together again in May. My plans for proposing had been made and destroyed 4 or 5 times by this point. But an opportunity presented itself on May 23rd, and with some help from our friends the time had come. I unfortunately tipped my hand on accident 2 weeks early (I was excited ok!?) that May 23rd we should go to Blast Off park in Brownsburg. I spent the next 2 weeks trying to make Jordyn forget that I had mentioned the park, that, in fact, going to the park was her idea, and “we could still go” if she wanted. Needless to say she was thrown off the scent. The 23rd arrived and we went to ice cream at Mandy’s (formerly Wyliepalooza), and then to the park where she was treated to the sight of 1000 yellow daisies and some candles surrounding her ring (set up by Johnny and Kayla in an actual downpour). So I dropped to a knee, said some probably super profound and awesome stuff (which I don’t remember due to nerves) and asked if she would do me the honor of being my wife. She didn’t say yes, she nodded and hugged me, then pulled back and punched me (friends this was no love tap) in the stomach. Confused by the mixed messages I asked for confirmation that she had indeed said yes. She told me she had, and my world has changed forever.