My entire life I have been praying for the woman I would one day marry. Honestly, I have had many moments of feeling like she would never come and that God was not going to answer my prayer for a spouse. In college, my friends joked (but were low-key serious) with me that my standards were too high and I was too picky. LOL and in many ways they were probably right but I also just kind of knew that aside from following Christ, this was going to be the most important decision I would ever make so I wasn't willing to settle for just anyone. I prayed for someone who loved the Lord and would encourage me in my faith, for someone who was fun and could always make me smile, someone who was great with people and emotionally intelligent so when something was happening we could just look at each other and internally either laugh together or know what to do, I prayed for someone who was passionate, caring, and kind to those around her, for someone with great friends who encourage and uplift her, for someone with grit and determination, for someone who was beautiful and made me feel like the luckiest man in the world. At one point (and I can admit this is too much LOL) I even got hyper-specific and prayed for a woman that was between "5' 4" and "5' 8", could sing, wore glasses, went to a Christian University, and was either a nurse or a counselor. Because my list was so specific I thought I would know who the woman I was supposed to marry was when I met her. But even with all that I was stupid and didn't see that on February 26, 2022 God had let me meet the person I would spend the rest of my life with. When I met Jalyn I did very quickly think, "oh, she is the type of person I would be want to be close friends with" but because of life circumstances and us living in two different states I did not think that anything could happen. But thankfully Jalyn wasn't dumb like me and felt more than just the connection between us, but the Holy Spirit bringing us together. After two years of loosely being connected from a distance, we found ourselves living and working in the same city. And it was actually the way Jalyn reached out to me and supported me in a time of hardship that made me realize, "Woah. There is something different happening here." And long story short, after I woke up and saw that God was not only giving me EVERY SINGLE THING I HAD PRAYED FOR (all the way down to her even being a nurse, wearing glasses, and being able to sing, crazy enough) I realized I never wanted to lose her and that she was my person. And now, through God's faithfulness, I get to spend the rest of my life with my best friend. I cannot wait to marry her!

I have prayed about and dreamed about my future husband for years. I prayed for a man that was gentle, kind, discerning, sensitive to the Holy Spirit, and shared similar passions. I prayed for someone I could laugh with, achieve with, and minister with. Jose Brown Jr. is everything I’ve prayed for and more. The Lord placed us in the lunch line together at Lee University on February 26th, 2022. Thank the Lord Jose was eavesdropping on Abbey and I cutting up in line. I was in awe from the moment I saw him. We ended up eating together and when he got up to leave Abbey looked at me and said “Why was that literally your husband?” From there I followed him on instagram and we were loosely connected through social media for over a year. Even with what little I knew about him, he truly was my dream man. Last year in March 2023, Faith, Abbey, and I were up praying at the apartment, and Jose was brought up. Faith said “Lord if this is Jalyn’s husband you’re gonna have to bring him to Nashville!” By July it was confirmed when Jose accepted a job at Belmont. Several messages left on read, an ignored super like, and a church visit later, Jose and I finally went out to coffee at Frothy Monkey February 26, 2024. He was gentle, he was kind, he was discerning, he was hilarious, he was everything I prayed for. It honestly felt too good to be true. But he really is just that good. I knew in that moment we had what I described as Kingdom compatibility; that the Lord would do a good work through us as a pair. I came home and told the girls “if he were to share the same feelings for me and we started dating, this would be it for me. He’d be the one. We wouldn’t date long before getting engaged and we wouldn’t be engaged long before getting married.” By April 8th we were officially a couple, by October 15th we were engaged, and now by March 29th I get to call Jose Brown Jr. my husband. Jose is the love of my life. He is one of God’s sweetest gifts to me. I can’t help but reflect on our story and see the hand of God so intimately involved in every intricate detail. Jose is my best friend, and I’m so excited to be his wife.