It was the Saturday after Thanksgiving and that night the dating app stars aligned. Both Adam and I logged into Tinderland and stumbled past one another's profiles. After swiping right and matching (eyyo!) we bantered back and forth for awhile and agreed that we should meet that week for a date. Thursday, December 1, 2016 we met on South Congress Avenue after work for our first date. One drink at the South Congress Hotel bar turned into dinner at Gueros & then a nightcap at Perla's. The next day Adam asked me if I would meet him at Whole Foods for lunch before he left for a weekend of drill. Our third date was back on South Congress and included dinner at Fresa's, stopping in at the South Congress Hotel bar, people watching at the Continental Club & finishing the night at Perla's again.

On our third date Adam was very upfront with me that later the next year he would be deploying for nine plus months. From that moment on we spent every single moment that we could together. We were inseparable. Adam's deployment date crept closer and closer to becoming reality and by the time I knew it we were sitting in Kilgore, Texas at the deployment dinner. The next morning, September 8th, I dropped Adam off at the Armory and drove four hours home thinking that the next time I would see him would be in 2018. Little did we know that during mobilization in El Paso he would have a weekend pass! So on October 6th I hopped on an airplane to spend one last weekend together. Our time was perfect, and it was then that we decided that if we were going to do this deployment we should really do it. And that was that. We left El Paso engaged!

Fast forward to 5 1/2 months into deployment and months of wedding planning. We were halfway through deployment and although it had been tough we were in a good routine. It was a normal Saturday. I spent the day lounging at my dad's house in my sweats, to the secret dismay of my mother. After being told that we had reservations at a restaurant downtown I headed home to get ready. Apparently this was the only way they thought I would change clothes. I arrived back at the house surprised to see my entire family there. My mom, who had told me she would be at a friend's house, said she stopped by to see my niece and nephew. Apparently our "reservation" had been pushed back half an hour. After about an hour of chatting I looked up to see Adam's sister walk into the kitchen. Being completely surprised I asked her what she was doing there and she responded, "Just came to say hi." Adam's parents walked in right behind her and before I could process what was happening Adam walked in. As far as I knew Adam was in Germany on an assignment. I had no idea that he was in Austin let alone in the United States. After the initial shock of seeing him in my parent's house and asking him several times what he was doing in Austin, Adam got down on one knee in front of both of our families and asked me to marry him. An ordinary Saturday night turned into the best day of my life.