Matthew 19:6

I had just released a new EP and Ariel texted me asking if she could promote it on her Instagram. We had talked a few times before – I knew her whole family from church – but from this moment on our conversations were pretty constant. She asked for help with her music theory homework for college and as I result I was over to her house quite a few times. One night we were hanging out with some friends playing Scrabble and we ended up talking about her birthday. It had been the week prior and I hadn't gotten her a present, so I asked if there was anything she wanted. She jokingly told me she wanted Krispy Kreme donuts. The next Saturday, my mom and I stopped and bought a dozen donuts as a gift. Her response upon finding out was, and I quote: "OH MY GOODNESS IM GONNA CRY!!!"

We both believe strongly that God chose us specifically for each other, but that doesn't make our pairing any less comical. My mom once asked me "so, what exactly do you two have in common?" and the honest answer is: not much. I like being organized and punctual; she prefers to go with the flow. She can't eat the same food more than one time in a week; meanwhile, I ate Chick-fil-A for breakfast every day in college, and ate a sandwich every day for lunch. Similarly, I can't listen to the same song more than once a month, but she will listen to songs multiple times a day. I take an apologetic and logical approach to my faith; she relies more on personal experience and the testimony of others. The list goes on and on. So how do we get along at all? Where I am weak, she is strong. Where she is weak, I am strong. We are unified in our belief in the Creator of all things and in our devotion to loving everyone we meet. Even two different puzzle pieces both serve the same purpose: to display the image for which they were designed.

I had been planning to propose for quite some time. As with most things in 2020, COVID ended up delaying those plans for much longer than I anticipated. By the end of summer, I had already written and finished a song to use in the proposal, but I still had to wait for the ring to be designed and manufactured and for an opportunity to schedule a paint night with Ariel and my family. The paint night was an integral part of my proposal (since painting is her creative talent) and I had to ensure that she didn't suspect my involvement. About a month prior to the proposal I told her that my family wanted her to run a paint night at their house, but because she had just started a new job, it was hard to find a time to schedule it. As Thanksgiving approached, I knew I had to set a date soon – December is far too hectic to fit in a proposal. She ended up being busy all of Thanksgiving week and had originally told me that she would be busy that Saturday as well. However, when I woke up that Saturday morning, she told me that her plans had been cancelled. This sent me into a frenzy as I made sure I got everyone involved on board with the proposal being that day. The painting took much longer than I had expected and we didn't end up leaving my parents' house until close to midnight. I brought her back to my house instead of hers "to show her a song I wrote her about the paint night". After playing it for her, I hung my painting on the wall and asked her if she could straighten it. She walked up to it and I flipped on the light directly above the painting, in which I had installed a blacklight bulb. This revealed blacklight ink saying "Will you marry me?" By this point, it was officially Sunday, November 22nd: my birthday. Our wedding will be on Tuesday, September 28th: her birthday. Sometimes life can really be poetic.