we're getting married!

Although Jacob and I have been in the same room many times because of Young Life, my first memory of him was at a Christmas party at our friend’s house in December of 2023. We had never formally met, so we introduced ourselves to each other. A few random interactions between then and late February, when I got an audio message from Jacob asking me on a date (?!) After my roommates encouraged me to go, 7 days of the most nerves ever had passed and built up to Jacob knocking on my door. We had dinner at Aubry’s where we talked about our testimony and a lot about our lives. Our plates gave away our nerves as we both barely ate. Afterward, Jacob gave me the option of ice cream or ice skating. After 6 hours of talking in the Andys parking lot Jacob asked me on our second date. That night, was filled with giggles as I gushed over our date to my roommate. Wondering what else we could possibly talk about on our second date, we spent 5 more hours together between Lakeshore Park, dinner at Culvers, and a tour of the law school! Days later, we left for spring break with 15 of our friends. After game nights, a morning walk on the beach, and Jacob sitting next to me for 2 hours watching the Taylor Swift Eras Tour movie, I was still unsure of my feelings. Out of protection of my heart, I called Jacob and…well, “ended things” (aw I know). But I was filled with regret all day long! That night, I saw him at the YL house watching a UT game and found myself wanting to talk to him. After watching another game days later, I decided I wanted to be honest about my unsure but sure feelings. But before I had the chance, Jacob came up to me at YL event to leave the door open between us. To his surprise, I was going to ask to talk to him that night - so we did! The next weeks meshed together of giddiness, excitement, meeting my family, and developing the biggest crush on him. That season before dating was the sweetness, most pure feeling I had ever felt up to that point. I felt so cherished and protected by Jacob’s patience for my heart. 3 weeks after officially dating I met all of Jacob’s family the weekend of his brother’s wedding. We then jumped into long distance from Knoxville to Hendersonville as Jacob worked an internship. That summer, we spent many giddy weekends visiting one another and eventually falling in love<3. Our long distance then moved from Johnson City to Knoxville as I started grad school and Jacob finished his last year of law school. Our long distance has now grown even further from Johnson City to Hendersonville (counting down to May 16th). Jacob is all of the things I had always hoped for in someone, but seemed too silly to ask for. But God listens and He gives! All the times we were in the same room, God knew the random guy with an insane jawline would one day be mine!

Emma is one of those people your eyes can't help but find in a room. She is also the kind of person you tell your friends you are bummed she has always been dating someone. That's when your friends tell you she is not dating someone anymore. Score. In that moment, I knew I had to ask her out after some time. Three months later, I built up the courage to send her an audio message to ask her out on a date (you know, to not put her on the spot or anything). After a little over an hour, she said she was flattered and we could go the next weekend. Double score. On our first date, we got dinner and ice cream. I can't say we ate either of them, but we sure did talk for six or so hours. The next date was more of the same. Emma and I are both talkers, and we seemed to talk about everything under the sun. I really liked her (I still do, for what it's worth). After a big group of our friends went to the beach together, we lined up our third date. Emma called me before the date, however, saying she didn't really know how she felt and didn't think it was fair for us to keep going on dates. You know that pit in the stomach feeling? I understood and respected her communication with me. We saw each other in groups over the course of the next three days. Man, I really liked her. I decided to say something to her. I wasn't going to ask her out again or anything; she had already made it clear with me. But I had to let her know that if anything changed, she could tell me, and it wouldn't be weird. Unbeknownst to me, she wanted to say something. I walked up to her on a Sunday afternoon and told her. To my relief, she had thoughts she wanted to share with me. Later that night, I picked her up, and we talked about the unspoken pressure of knowing if we were meant to be before we would be forced into a long-distance relationship. We felt like we had to have it all figured out, but we didn't talk about that. We agreed that we really wanted to keep going on dates without the pressure of creating a rock-solid foundation before being in different cities. A little scare, but triple score. It was full speed ahead from there. We started going on more dates and entered into the early stages of true infatuation. I met her amazing family. We had our first kiss (even if I wasn't smooth about it). After clearer communication and patience with one another, I asked her to be my girlfriend. She said yes. What a beautiful person she is. I have never met anyone like her. We used the big L word after a while. Even though we have basically had to date from hours away throughout most of our history, I wouldn't trade dating Emma for the world. Then I realized that there was one trade I probably did want to make... from girlfriend to fiancée. I asked her to go look at rings with her mom so she could get her ring size and find out what she likes. To my joy, she gave a good list of qualities she likes in a ring. It gave me some direction, but also the flexibility to choose a ring for the person I wanted to marry. If you know anything about me, you would know I did a ton of research before going to get a ring. I love reading about the things I care deeply about. I care the deepest for Emma (she makes it easy, to be fair). There was back and forth, but the engagement plan was settled for a trip to the beach with her family. The ring came in literally the day before I needed it to. It was all coming together. When we got to the beach, her family played their roles like professional actors. Her dad and I completed a side quest to scout out the state park where I would pop the question. We created code phrases for plans B and C. Then, the day arrived. Emma didn't suspect anything. I had a massive ring box in my pocket that, fortunately, went unnoticed. We took pictures at the park, and I asked Emma to walk ahead with me. I told her that I wanted to marry her and grow in Christ together. I got down on one knee and asked... She said yes, again.