WE'RE GETTING MARRIED

We first met at Journey church's youth ministry, The Crash. We didn't run in the same circle but our friend groups got along pretty well. In 2016 at Pinecrest's summer camp we hung out a lot and became pretty good friends. Then later that same year, we both started the church's internship together, he was the group's leader and I was just an intern. The more time we spent together the more we realized that we have a lot in common. He was my co-leader in J-Kids on Sunday mornings as well, and it was obvious to everyone but us that we were perfect for each other. He took me to a Halloween party and everyone kept asking if we were dating, which I had to tell everyone no, constantly haha. Then when my birthday rolled around I had started to really fall for him, we went to dinner with my family and later that evening he had asked me to be his girlfriend and the rest is history!

Because 2020 was a giant flop, I didn't want to do anything for my birthday but Kevin suggested that we should go on a weekend trip to celebrate. He and I decided to take my birthday and our anniversary off to go up to Big Bear CA. My birthday is on the 30th of November and our anniversary is on the 1st of December. (That's a story for another time 😉.) So, we decided to spend my 22nd birthday together and then we would drive up to Big Bear, stay the night, and then the next day my mom would take pictures of us for our 4 year anniversary. The morning of our anniversary we spent it drinking coffee by a fireplace all cuddled up under blankets which was super romantic. As we were on our way to take pictures, we found a couple of cute places to take pictures, one of which was a hiking trail right next to the lake! We took some really cute pictures long before I had realized what was happening, but I'm getting ahead of myself. We were just about to go to a new location but I was getting cold and hungry, so we pulled over to one last spot to have a "romantic picnic" for our anniversary. He bought me roses and we had a fancy bottle of champagne to celebrate our 4 years together. So as my mom is taking pictures of us just being candid and celebrating, he starts to tell me how much he loves me, how I make his life better, and how he knows that I'm the woman he wants to spend his life with, but all the while, he's reaching for the ring in his jacket pocket. I started to get teary-eyed from his speech and then all of a sudden he kneels down and says "Maddie, will you do me the honor of marrying me?" Of course, I balled like a baby and I said YES! I had absolutely no idea that he was going to propose. BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!