Our story did not begin by meeting at college or growing up in the same town. In fact for most of our lives we were living in two different states! So how did we meet? Well, it’s not the most romantic story! Lol On December 28, 2019 we matched on a dating app and our correspondence began. After about a month, messaging I finally agreed to go on a date :) We FaceTimed the week of our date to make me feel more comfortable and the two things I took away was he was so funny and he had a little bit of country accent! Lol On January 25, 2020 we had our very first date! I remember being very nervous and putting in the wrong address in my GPS so I was a little late haha If you ask Matt he will say I was about 15-20 minutes late (not true it was like 6)! Lol Walking up and opening the door I looked right away to my right side and there I saw him sitting down and my first reaction was he was even cuter in person! Before our first date had ended we had already planned when to see each other next. We were very fortunate and blessed to have met each other right before COVID took over and the shutdown began. We had only about 7 dates before we had to be quarantined from each other for the next 11 weeks :/ What did we do during quarantine? We talked for hours over FaceTime everyday, played Boggle a lot and watched TV shows together over FaceTime! The quarantine for us was a blessing in disguise because it allowed us to get to know each other deeper at a faster pace! Most of our dating consisted of spending time inside with our families playing board games, taking walks, watching mystery movies, and playing tennis! We will always remember our dating experience during COVID because of how unique an experience it was! We are very thankful and blessed after so much praying that God picked the most perfect time to allow our paths to cross and it has been all worth the wait!

On Sunday, May 30 after church we spent the day in Columbus. After walking through a beautiful park and going shopping, we enjoyed Panda Express in the car. While in the car, Matt said once we get back to Springfield he wanted to go to the lake to watch the sunset. This is when I began to get a little suspicious…Sunset time that night was at 8:53pm. When we arrived at the lake it was 8:15pm. We got out of the car and took the hammock with us. Matt started off ahead of me and looked like he was on a mission. It seemed like he wanted a particular spot (little did I know he scouted out the area beforehand to find the perfect spot). Once we got to the spot he wanted…there were already people there, so we ventured further to find another spot, however, there were too many people around. He said he wanted a spot that was more private, so we walked back to the car and drove to the other side of the lake. At this point it is about 8:40pm. We finally found our location and got the hammock secured around the trees. He kept on asking me what time it was and when sunset was. After we talked awhile, he got up from the hammock (9:00pm) and got a drink from his thermos. He then proceeded to ask me if I wanted to see what he’d been working on for me. He gave me a tackle-box which read “Words of Affirmation Box” (my top love language). Inside the box were letters written by him to me. He gave me a letter one at a time and read it out loud for me. After the last letter he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.