The Two Shall Become One

Our journey to the altar together begins at St. Stephen's Catholic Church. We spent 5 months together every Tuesday evening for 2 hours in the same room at St. Stephen's. We were both attending RCIA. Jesse was a table leader and I, Marissa, was a candidate seeking the sacraments. In the winter of 2016, Jesse, through the Bring Christ to Others Ministry, stood in front of the RCIA class asking for donations and volunteers to feed breakfast to the poor of Midland. I signed up to bring eggs and opted not to volunteer. The event was to take place on a Saturday in January. That morning, I made a phone call to the number listed as the contact. The number was Jesse's. I let him know I was on my way with the eggs. Once I arrived, Jesse retrieved the eggs and expressed his role in the ministry to feed the poor and asked if it was okay to contact me for future opportunities to tend to the poor. Little did I know, he had noticed me before and seized the opportunity to save my number without being so forward. I had no idea he had a slight interest as I assumed he was married. Two weeks went by and I received a text message about another opportunity to donate and help feed the poor. Once again I signed up to donate, this time orange juice, but already had a commitment and could not volunteer. Thursday of that week I met Jesse and gave him the juice. It was something about that exchange that made me drawn to him. Jesse left there wondering if he should text me and thank me again in hopes of creating an open conversation. As I drove off, I quickly realized what I was drawn to, it was the way he smiled at me. I texted him and complimented him on his smile. That's where our friendship began.

After numerous attempts to retrieve Marissa's ring size and even as far as reaching out to her family, she managed to ruin every attempt by asking too many questions. This prolonged my ability to purchase her ring. Finally, I had no choice but to use my mom's ring finger size as a gauge to fit Marissa's ring finger. My sister aided me in searching for the perfect ring. She's the expert and I am in no way familiar with the details of purchasing an engagement ring. I knew she could help me and we found the perfect ring. ALAS, AFTER A MONTH OR SO EXPIRED THE RING HAD FINALLY ARRIVED. Now, it was time for me to plot on how I was going to ask her to marry me. Being that I met her at Church it was only right that I ask her at Church. I figured asking her at a family church function would be appropriate. In the week to come I would be baptizing my niece, therefore, I seized that day as I would be getting down on my knee to propose. I knew there would be family present, thus, I would not be as nervous. There was no better day than that day as I was going to baptize my niece and also witness the baptism of my nephew. I had only informed a handful of people because I did not want that day to be ruined. The day had come and following the baptism we all headed outside to the garden for pictures. Once all the pictures had been taken with the two newly baptized babies, I embraced the opportunity to take Marissa aside for a picture of just us two. Fireworks were about to start flying. As I asked her to take a picture with me, I noticed that she was cold and flustered. I knew what was about to take place was going to take it all away. I had all cameras and photographers (Ashley, my sister and Faith, my niece) in position as they knew what was about to take place. If you are reading this, you obviously know what her answer was!