Let's get hitched!

Hank and I had a mutual friend who introduced us. My childhood friend, Janae worked with Hank in Florida. She told me about Hank in the summer of 2014, but I dismissed her. First of all, they were in Florida and I was living in Oklahoma (still do). Secondly, I took one look at Hank and thought to myself "He's handsome, but I don't think I'm his type." I told Janae to leave me alone. LOL! Little did I know that Hank would text me in October. In his text he introduced himself and said that Janae wouldn't give him my name. She told him if he wanted to know my name he had to text to ask. And thus the journey began in a text in October of 2014.

Hank and I have been together, but a part since 2014. There were a brief couple months that we were 20 minutes away from each other, because I moved to Florida for a job opportunity. There's definitely a stigma attached to long distance relationships. The truth is that it's challenging, and it's not for the faint of heart. I am grateful that Hank and I have strong hearts, and our resolve to continue to be faithful to each other is a testament of God's goodness.

I'm pretty sure Hank had some elaborate plans for the proposal. I was living in Georgia with my brother in April of 2018. I was actually preparing to move back to Oklahoma, and Hank came up for a visit. Hank's car died that weekend. That threw him for loop. Bless his heart! As much as I'm sure he wanted to throw rocks, he was really calm about having to rent a car for his return trip home to Florida. He had to hunt for a new car in a different state, and he was still planning to propose. Right before he left to go back to Florida we were in the parking lot of JC Penny's (it's where I worked at the time) and he said he needed to check the tires on my car. I said ok, and I turned to the opposite tire to look, too. When I turned around, he was on one knee with a ring box open. Initially, I was thinking..."Why are you on the ground? It's dirty!" When I finally realized what was happening, I was in shock and speechless. I said yes, and we went back to my brother's house so Hank could talk to my dad (Daddy was actually in town that weekend). Hank started expressing his love for me to Dad, and that's when all of the emotions hit me and I started to cry uncontrollably. I'm glad that I got to witness his confession of love to my dad. It was the most precious compliment to his sweet proposal.