WE'RE GETTING MARRIED, CELEBRATE WITH US!

To start out, our story is completely God-ordained and grace-led. Both of us acknowledge God's goodness in giving us to one another as precious gifts and we have found so much joy in the Lord as he has brought us to where we are! 03.13.15 Through a wonderful ministry known as the Ferguson Foundation, Sam and I were invited to go on a trip to Israel for 10 days. I never knew that a man named Samuel Carroll existed down in Naples, FL . And he never knew about me in my little world of Branson, MO until we traveled to the Holy Land. Those 10 days in Israel changed us both in so many more ways than we might have realized at the time. We tried to keep our distance while on the trip, but both of us couldn't shake this deep draw toward the other person. While we did make efforts to get to know one another, neither of us expressed any of our feelings for the other person until we got home from the trip. 3 days upon returning, Sam called me and told me that he liked me. I didn't know I wouldn't see him again until December, and the thought of long distance scared me. Later that summer, God answered my doubts and moved Sam to MS where he would work as a youth pastor for the next 2 years. 8 hours away was much better than 21 and we praise God for his goodness! 12.22.15 Sam made the long trek to Branson, MO for the first time. He met my family, sat down with my dad, and had an intentional conversation with me all within 24 hours. This is when we officially decided to date each other exclusively. The best :) 07.08.17 Sam and I had been dating long distance for a long time when we got engaged. Nothing is better than looking at someone you love and knowing that they're your future. Sam is for me. He is God's gift to me and I love him forever! My best friend and my most favorite traveling buddy. I can't imagine life without him! This short article does not do justice to the lessons we learned and the joy we have found in this beautiful journey. Thanks for being a part of it!

As a girl I had grown up daydreaming about my future husband... who he would be, what he would be like, what color eyes he would have, everything. As a little girl, it's just always something that you dream about, this mystery person and the future life that you'll share. Over the years I had these expectations and hopes for everything and, in my head, they were so good. And when I met Sam, things unfolded completely different than I had ever imagined for myself, and it has been SO MUCH BETTER than I could have ever dreamt up on my own. I always thought that my proposal would be one of those things where I would feel the prettiest I've ever felt before. Maybe my hair blowing in the wind, or something, for effect. I thought I would cry, but you know, never the ugly-cry type of thing. Only everything glamorous, sparkly, and fairytale-esque. But the truth is that I was still sulking that Sam had "left" back for Mississippi when my friends convinced me to go out for a girls night. I was emotionally exhausted and they still managed to get me in a dress and heels. We ordered pizza, which was mostly a mistake. My dress had gotten burned by the iron, I felt bloated from the dessert we had, and I even spilled salsa on myself. But what I didn't imagine for a night like this was just how much I wouldn't care about stuff like that. I didn't cry, I wasn't nervous, it was just us. Sam didn't need to convince me to marry him in that one night because I had already been so sure that he was who God had for me for so so long before. When we got to the church he was standing on the porch and not much was running through my head other than "I really love him". He led me to the back where he had some lights and a bench set up. He served me and said that he wished to do so for the rest of our lives. We prayed together and he asked me to marry him. We talked and danced and just got to be alone in that moment. And it was more than I ever dreamt it would be. I praise God for you, Sam <3

I stood on the front porch of a church, in the middle of the woods somewhere in Missouri, overwhelmed by the grace that allowed me to stand in confidence. You see, growing up, I always figured the day I would ask the love of my life to marry me I would be struck by chronic butterfly-in-the-tummy syndrome and be curled up on the bathroom floor sweating drops of anxiety. I stood alone on the porch with flowers in hand, overwhelmed by peace and exhaling any and every bit of anticipation that had been building ever since the moment I realized that I loved this woman. She stepped out of the car and her presence seemed to calm the undefined emotions that had been running through my mind since I had arrived on scene 5 hours earlier. She allowed me to take her by the hand and I led her into the woods where I had prepared to plead my case. You see, I knew that if I was going to somehow convince this woman to take me as her husband it was going to take some serious persuading. Those next few moments were ours. I proceeded to tell her things that I would never tell another person on this planet, while building the courage to drop the mother of all questions. As the evening proceeded I did my very best to express my heart. There are a lot of things and people in the world that I love, but Erika gets her own special list. How do you explain that? How do you find a way to take the deepest parts of your heart and communicate them to another human being? I still don’t have an answer. The only thing I know to do is spend the rest of my life explaining. And so after we prayed, I asked Erika Lynn Whited to marry me, and she said she was cool with it. Those weren’t her exact words, but either way, I was super stoked! At long last we had finally gotten a ring on that finger! The rest of the night was spent in such sweet celebration… So excited for life with this woman. Praise God for his precious gifts!