Our journey started in what we later realized was a spiritually manipulative group that weaponized scripture and shunned you when you began to question anything about their approach to faith. Naturally, that environment was ripe for true love to spring forth! We bumped into each other after watching baptisms on a group retreat one day and got to talking, and conversations continued throughout the weekend. The day we left, Emily worked up the courage to sit with James and talk with him at lunch, which James reciprocated by asking for her number. Once we went on our first date, it was clear this relationship was going to be different. The beauty of building the foundation of our bond on Jesus and his call for couples and individuals that follow him has shone through our entire time together. This was especially true early on, when we decided to trust each other and leave the group that contained the majority of our college friend group just four months into us dating. It was a giant leap of faith full of pain, tears, and confusion, and it made us rely on each other and God in a way we had never done before. Through all of the emotions, the highs and lows of that experience revealed how deep both God's love is for us and the depth of how much we cared for one another. The next challenge came with Emily's foot surgery, which entailed months of rest and physical therapy. Neither of these things sat well with her, so James' trips to her house became frequent to make her recovery a little brighter. This is the moment Emily points to as the first time she knew she wanted to spend the rest of her life with this man (James knew like two weeks in, but who's keeping score?). This time saw us diving into scripture more consistently, the creation of the Jemily media list (which determines what movie or show we watch on a given day), and our 1-year anniversary, celebrated at the Dallas Arboretum. Time passed and Emily eventually progressed enough to get out of her cast. James graduated from UNT, started his alternative certification, and moved back to Celina from Denton, adding an hour of distance between us. We still made time to visit one another around once a week, and talk of the future became more and more frequent. Thus began the ramp-up to proposal day. Pre-marital counseling was a joyous time; getting the blueprint of what marriage in Christ looks like and imagining what that would look like for us. On March 24th, 2025, James asked Emily to spend the rest of her days with him as his wife, to which she gave a teary-eyed "Yes." Our story is just beginning in the grand scheme of things. There are lots of exciting avenues of life we have yet to go down, many experiences we have yet to live through. In this moment, however, branching between past lives and future excitement, we want to take a moment and stay in the present; to be here surrounded by people who love us and celebrate our union into one flesh (Genesis 2:24) under God. As the day approaches, please pray for our marriage to be a beacon of light in a world of darkness, a reflection of Christ and his church, and a reminder of all He has done on our behalf. We cannot wait to see you in Terrell on November 23rd! God bless.