Love Never Fails

We met at church in Ohio where Justin's cousin, Cindy, who was also my cheerleading coach at the time introduced us. Then we went to the mall where we talked for all of five minutes. I guess five minutes was enough time for Justin to know that I was the one. Because once we went back to Cindy's house, he left the kitchen to emerge right as I was getting into my car. He ran up to me and said, "Hey! Do you mind if we be friends?" And in that moment we exchanged numbers, Justin went back home to Valdosta, and we talked every day since.

We've never really celebrated Valentines Day. So when we were out ring shopping that weekend and Justin kept urging me to hurry up and finish before the "surprise" left, I had no idea what was to come. We stopped to get gas after we left the ring shop when Justin blindfolded me and said we were going to a new restaurant. But after a series of speed bumps, I knew that we weren't at a restaurant, but a proposal was the furthest thing from my mind. He led me up an unfamiliar flight of steps and as soon the door creaked open, I heard Daniel Caesar's song, Best Part, playing in the background. He took off the blind fold and the first thing I saw was "She said yes." Which wasn't presumptuous -- after all I'd been waiting for 7 years.

It was very ironic that Justin took me ring shopping before the proposal. Three years ago, I fell in love with a beautiful pear shaped halo ring at Zales. Once I tried it on, my tears told me that it was the one. But like I said, it was three years ago. I was sure that the ring wasn't in production, and I was curious to try on new styles, but as we tried on rings the day of the proposal, I compared every ring to the one three years ago. It was something about that ring that held my heart. So when Justin proposed with the same ring, I understood why he kept me as far away from a ring shop every since.