I never even considered traveling with an evangelistic team after college, especially since my major was biology. But through a series of seemingly random events (which I can now recognize as God's sovereignty), God made it clear that it was His plan for me. I met Carol Anne in Miami, Florida on January 4th, 2019 (at the first church of my first semester). We became fast friends and by the summer I knew I was interested. I was going to be working as a camp counselor the whole summer, and I knew I had another year of traveling with Carol Anne, so I decided to wait to tell her how I felt until at least the next year so I could avoid the awkwardness if she didn't feel the same way. That didn't last hahahahaha By the third week at camp, I decided I couldn't wait any longer so I told Carol Anne that I was interested! She *apparently* didn't react as positively as I thought she did, but my understanding of the conversation was that she was ENORMOUSLY interested in me... we talked on the weekends throughout the summer and planned for me to visit Alabama when camp ended. My visit to Alabama was a blast! It was really the first time we had a chance to spend time with just each other, and we loved it- so much so, in fact, that I ended up staying two extra days (it started to get embarrassing when we would come back to the house and Mr. Matthews would say "Yes, you can stay another night). We started dating the second week of traveling in the Fall, and we got engaged just seven weeks later! The main character of our love story is God. We once tried to imagine what might have happened in our relationship if things had gone differently, but we quickly realized that if everything in our relationship didn't happen exactly as it did and exactly when it did, we would not have ended up together. We can look back and see without a doubt that God orchestrated everything that happened in His perfect way, and we are SO thankful!

To tell my side of the story I really have to back up to before I met Mitchell. After graduating from college and marrying my sweetheart in July of 2015 we began traveling with the Coffeys right away and soon thereafter found out that our son was on the way. Two years later while we were on winter break, my husband was in a single car crash that immediately took his life Home on December 17, 2017. Over the following year, God brought me on a journey of finding my deepest satisfaction in His character alone. I had no idea what He was preparing my heart for.

I was really curious to meet the "new guy" in January of 2019. He instantly fit in and was so easy going. He was musical, funny, so kind, he even offered to watch Asa one afternoon a week just so that I could have the time off! It wasn't until our Spring break that semester that I first thought that Mitchell was maybe interested. While on break he learned my favorite song on guitar. *melty heart* I dismissed the little sign though because he was *too* young and for SURE wouldn't ever be seriously interested in me! I'm a widow and I have a son! A close friend even asked if I'd ever consider being interested in Mitchell, to which my response was a pretty quick "no." I loved him for sure (like a brother), but couldn't imagine my heart was ready to be loved again. Our traveling semester ended in May and Mitchell stayed in touch. In June, on one of our FaceTime catch ups (ok, I should have known... I get that, but I didn't) he dropped the bomb that he was "super interested" and wanted to know what I thought. "What did I think?" I thought he was insane! I didn't want my best friend to go through what I knew he would have to in order for my heart to be able to love him and be loved by him. There's no way we would actually ever work. But there wasn't a single thing about him that I didn't respect. So, we kept talking every weekend. Admittedly, I tried asking every hard questions in an attempt to scare him away. When that didn't work, I actually had to grapple with the fact that he was serious and I had to respond to him. It was Mitchell's unwavering persistence in pursuing me that convinced me. So, by August I knew I whole-heartedly loved Mitchell. Three weeks later we were dating and seven weeks after that we were engaged. I guess when you know you know! You know? God is SO good and not only because I can love again. Because God loves me and is committed to me knowing Him. How AWESOME is it that I get to know my God now through another precious marriage relationship?!