Terrin and I first met at the Young Adult service through a mutual friend, but I say we didn’t officially meet until a training together at work. I was already in the room when the rest of the trainees came in and I distinctly remember seeing Terrin. Now I know what you’re thinking, “I bet it was love at first sight!”, or, “There was an instant connection!” Well, you’re waaay off, haha! My first thought was, “Man, this guy is super cocky and full of himself.” Which I wasn’t wrong back then, haha! Over months of getting to know him, I noticed that he was growing out of that behavior. Not only was he growing into the man that he was created to be, he was also growing in his relationship with God, which was amazing to see and be a part of. Maybe it was my influence? I’d like to think that ;). The boy that I said that I would never date because of his cocky attitude is now the amazing and caring man that I fall in love with more and more each day.

McKenzie and I first met at Young Adults back when it was still Seven. When I say meet, I mean I saw her talking to my friend Aaron, and I thought “Dang, that’s one cute girl!” So naturally I wandered over there to introduce myself! I saw her from a distance for a while since we both worked at Gateway together, but in different departments. The next time we really met was a training session for both of us to learn how to do a specific job. Back then I was, and to a lesser extent still am, pretty cocky and can be a show-off to people I want to impress and like me! So, I made sure she knew how intelligent, amazing, and talented I was! She was less than impressed. It took me several months to convince her I wasn’t as bad as my second impression made me out to be! Since then she’s helped me grow into the person I am today and helps to humble me anytime I try to “impress” her or anyone else. It’s amazing to me to compare the people we were when we first met to the people we are today and see the growth and love bloom between us and realize that I owe it all to God and her!

It was time to have a girl’s night with Leslie and Cayla! No plans on getting all dressed up, just a t-shirt, jeans, no makeup since we were just going to the mall. Leslie and Cayla arrived; my hair still wet, t-shirt, and gym shorts. A few minutes later, I went to talk to my mom, and she said, “You look tired. You need to put on some makeup.” My jaw dropped. If you know my mom, you know that she’d NEVER say something like that! So... I figured if she said something about it, that I probably should put makeup on. I came out with my makeup all done and I looked at how Leslie and Cayla were dressed (which was nicer than normal). So, I told them that I was going to change into something else. Little did I know that my mom and Cayla snuck one of my dresses into Leslie’s car just in case I didn’t change. Needless to say, they were silently celebrating, haha! We left, ate, and did some shopping, then Leslie got a phone call saying from Jordan and Matt saying that they needed to be picked up at the Gateway Southlake campus. That’s when I started questioning what was going on. After years of dating, you fantasize about how they’ll propose and you read into too many things, haha! We went to the campus, all the lights were off, and there were no cars. Something was up. We walked through the main doors (obviously no one was there), and I saw lights wrapped around the stair rails. “Is this happening? No, I’m just reading into things again. But maybe?” After standing in the lobby for a bit, they both started to smile, and Leslie shoved me towards to stairs and they ran out of the building. It was happening. I started walking up the stairs, taking my time and soaking in the moment. It honestly didn’t hit me that it was really happening until halfway up the stairs. Right when I got to the top, there he was. All the emotions were hitting me at once. It was the place we met, the place we fell in love, and the place I said yes. It was perfect.

I had planned it all out, and with help from our mutual friends Leslie and Jojo, it was actually going to look pretty! We had planned to decorate a bench near Southlake Town Square, where McKenzie and I first told each other we loved one another, then Texas decided that wasn’t a good idea. It rained for hours the day I was going to propose, and the bench was completely soaked. This was the only day this could happen because of a trip we had planned to go to Orlando the next morning, so we scrambled to find another place for the proposal. The first thing that came to mind was Gateway. We had met there, we had grown our love for each other there, and I had access to the building when it was closed! We rushed to make it work and I got ready for one of the biggest moments of my life. Now my biggest concern was that McKenzie was going to show up to the proposal wearing sweats, a t-shirt, and no make-up. Like I said before we had a trip to Orlando planned the very next day, and my lovely fiancé-to-be hadn’t packed yet! She was going to spend the whole day at home with her friends eating pizza, candy, hanging out in pajamas and packing. While myself and our friends Jordan, Jojo, and Matt set the stage for the proposal, McKenzie’s best friends, Leslie and Cayla, rounded her up and made sure she was presentable. They eventually got her up to the building and she slowly walked up the string light lined stairs. My heart had been pounding for the last 15 minutes not knowing when she was going to show up and when she came up over the stairs, I lost it. All of the words and awesome touching things I was going to say and do came blubbering out of my face and we just laughed and cried and eventually I actually asked her to marry me, she said yes!