"We love because he first loved us."

Everybody always asks us, “Where did you all meet?” We always seem to reply with, “Uhh, we met at RUF— our campus ministry at UTK.” This is where we spent most of our early time together making friends and getting to know each other better. However, the truth is we’re not really sure. Since freshman year of college we have always been friends and been around each other. We took organic chemistry together and would spend hours together studying and doing homework in the library. With all this time spent together, it wasn’t long before we started to develop another form of chemistry! After going on a service trip to Central America together, thoughts of dating started to move in. Still, it took Michael almost a year before he got up the nerve to ask Shelby on a date. We can’t say that it was easy in the beginning or that we never took some time off, but we couldn’t stay apart for too long. We continued to date throughout senior year learning how to love each other better and better. After two years of growing together, we got engaged in Memphis, Tennessee. We’re both extremely blessed and thankful for God having put us in each other’s lives. Going forward, we’re excited to continue to grow together and to push ourselves to love each other more and more in the way that Christ first loved us.