We're getting married!

I first spotted Jake on the Messiah freshman Facebook group and thought he was a cutie. My crush continued as I saw him around campus. We both attended Young Life at Messiah and that's where we officially met! To get to know new people, they had a "speed dating" game (I guess it worked). Jake asked about my most embarrassing moment and I had to show him a video of me dancing and ripping my pants. This is where our friendship began! We continued to have short conversations that made my day. I had such a crush on Jake that I kept trying to talk to him and he eventually asked me on a date!

Our first date was to the Salvation Army where Jake bought me a shirt as an "early Christmas gift". We talked the whole time we were in the car and it wasn't until we got back to campus that we realized there was no music playing. We continued to go on dates and getting to know each other. On December 22nd Jake asked me to be his girlfriend (he really stumbled over his words, but of course I said yes).

Jake and I spent a lot of time hammocking along the Yellow Breeches at Messiah. We also enjoy taking our dogs on walks around the neighborhood, hitting golf balls in the yard, trips to Starbucks or pet stores. Our favorite place ever is the beach! We went to Ecuador together for three weeks with Messiah and enjoyed traveling together.

On my birthday, Jake mentioned possibly going ring shopping. Jake loves to play jokes on me, so I was sure he was kidding! We didn't talk about it much more until the fall. We went shopping and we found a ring for me that had meaning to both of us. Jake told me he wanted to have the ring so he could propose and I would never see it coming. He liked that he could wait as long as he wanted to propose. Fortunately, he didn't wait too long and we got engaged on November 7th at a park in Lititz. He dropped the ring on the ground during the day but luckily I didn't notice!

Jake and I are so excited to get married and figure out growing up together. We will be living in West York in our first apartment! I will be teaching 3rd grade at Northern and Jake will be teaching high school English at South Western. This year holds a lot of unknowns but we are grateful we get to figure this all out together.