I'll give some boring facts first and then some sappy sweet stuff. :) Jake grew up as a part of Cornerstone Fellowship Church in Apex, NC, and is an influential member of the young adult group. He was homeschooled along with his 5 siblings. In May of 2021, Jake moved out of his family's house in Fuquay-Varina to share an apartment with his sister. I (Julia) grew up in Antioch Community Church in Elon, NC. I lived with my family of 10 on our farm in Liberty, NC, until the Lord led me to move to Lillington to pursue ninja and working at Rock Solid Warrior in August of 2020. I started attending Cornerstone and participated in the young adult group as my job allowed. As I got to meet and know the members of the young adult group, I immediately admired Jake as a godly young man. You could say I had a "crush" on him, but it was more of a "Wow, he is an amazing guy, and his wife will be a blessed girl, but he is way outside my league and would never be interested in me!" So, I did not pursue a relationship with him, and just admired him as a great brother in Christ whenever we were in group settings. We were both blind as bats for about a year before we both started to be interested in pursuing a relationship. We started texting regularly in December and went on a couple "unofficial dates" before we became official. On January 1, 2022, Jake asked my parents for their blessing to pursue a relationship with me, and the next day he asked me!

I was told growing up that when you meet the right one, you will know. Whether it's over the course of four years, or four months. I was told that you will know without a shadow of a doubt that he is the one you are going to spend the rest of your life with. That has proven true for both of us and it didn't take us very long to figure that out! (Less than 2 months to be exact!) He quickly became my best friend and the person I wanted to be with all of the time. He's the one I want to grow old with.

3 months and 30 days after January 2nd, was the day! April 30th will forever be one of my favorite days. We had the entire day to spend together. We planned to just hang out, then go thrift store shopping, and go for a walk. On the way back from thrift shopping, we stopped at a big, white cross that has meant a lot to both of us over the past few years. I knew it was going to happen sometime during that day, but I was completely oblivious that it was about to happen. We walked up to the cross, I picked a flower and he put it in my hair and gave me a hug. Then I felt his entire body start shaking and he started singing, "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are grey. And now you know, dear, how much I love you." As soon as he started to pull away from the hug to get down on one knee, I started laughing and crying and that's when he asked me to marry him.