We met briefly at a life group bible study early on in the Fall semester of 2017. The common theme was us being together with a mutual group of friends but it never ended up being just the two of us:( Over time, these interactions started to grow in my heart, and to Austin's surprise, I texted him asking for a friend's number regarding a mission trip that we both ended up going on. On the trip, Austin shared his testimony with the group and asked to hear mine later in the week. We ended up talking, one on one, all night until the sun came up. During this talk, I shared my testimony and also confessed that I had feelings for him. He kindly said "thank you for sharing". I thought I ruined our friendship, but to MY surprise, he was interested and wanted to take me on a date once we got back home. We started dating and the rest is history!

Let me welcome you to the best day, ever. It took some coordination trying to get all of Kathleen's dearest friends together and to come up with a plan without her figuring it out. So, her friends and I ended up planning for all of the girls to go downtown Bowling Green and take pictures together. While this was happening, I set up candles around a beautiful gazebo which was the last "photo shoot" location. As they approached, Kathleen looked incredibly confused, which helped calm my nerves a little bit. I shared everything that was on my heart and dropped to one knee and asked her to marry me!