It's hard to pin point the exact moment when we met, because we were so young when it happened. We were both 12 years old when Abby's family first attended Life House Church with the Sullivans. But what I do remember was the first moment I saw her I thought she was the prettiest, coolest, and most fun girl i'd ever met. She's always had such a fun, bubbly, and dorky energy everywhere she went. I immediately thought I would never stand a chance with someone as awesome as she was. It wasn't until I started spending time with the Sullivan family that Abby and I would begin spending time together. Fast forward a couple years to when we were both 15 years old, at this point we had begun to notice each other as possibly having some possible chemistry. However, I didn't actually make a move on Abby until my little brother (and best man) Jadon had talked with Abby essentially confirming that we both had a crush on each other. With a totally unexplainable newfound confidence I asked Abby out to lunch at Mel's Diner. We dated for a couple months, before my family had decided to move to Washington to be closer to family. It was here where Abby and I decided not to do long distance dating, and sorrowfully we said our farewells and wished each other the best. Little did we know this was just the beginning of our incredible journey together.

After a year of moving to Washington, my older brother Zane had gotten engaged to the love of his life Lily. To celebrate, the two of them decided to take a road trip to California to share the announcement. Upon returning, Zane's first words to me were "Dude, you have to reach out to Abby." Refusing to share any further information, I excitedly, as the kids say, 'slid into her DM's.' After texting and calling for a couple of weeks, I decided I was going to fly down and take Abby out to dinner. I still remember just how stunning she looked that evening, and the excited gleam in her eyes as I confessed how strong my feelings still were for her, and I asked if she wanted to give long distance dating a shot. It was all history from there. After about 6 months of long distance dating, things were just too difficult. We both needed more time to grow as people, and long distance was proving to be way more than we had bargained for. So Abby and I broke things off once more, albeit more sorrowful than the last time as we still had feelings in our heart for one another. We just needed more time.

After Lakai had moved to Washington, we had nothing but time apart from each other to learn and mature. But as the old adage goes "Distance makes the heart grow fonder," we both found truth in this statement. For almost two years we tried to move on in life, and found ourselves saying "but they're not Abby" or "they're not Lakai." No matter how hard we tried to move on from each other, we kept finding ourselves stuck in the same cycle. That was until Lakai decided to move back to California. Within the first two months of his return, Abby felt compelled to discuss their past together in order to move forward in life. During this conversation, they both found that feelings for each other still grew strong. So on Easter Sunday of 2023, they decided to give dating another shot. Not even 5 days later they made things official, and even shared their first kiss! After both assuming the other had moved on, we found that our love for each other had persisted all these years. There was no doubt in our hearts that we had both found our forever person.

It was the week before my birthday. Family was over, and we were eating all my favorite comfort foods having an early celebration of my birthday, or so I thought! Little did I know this whole party was a ruse for the real celebration. My sister took Lakai and I out to Folsom Lake as the sun set. She was taking couple's pictures for us as a birthday gift. Sarah told us to look into the sunset I turned around and that's when I saw Lakai on his knee! After his beautiful, speech, which for some reason we both don't remember I said YES! Can't wait to celebrate with all of you!