It all began my (Erin’s) junior year of college and Ricardo’s freshman year at Williams Baptist. Even though Ricardo played baseball, he tended to socialize with soccer players, including a few of my close friends. Ricardo and our friends quickly formed a close friendship, and I was always invited to join their excursions. After a while I began to socialize with this group of friends where I began to get to know Ricardo. After a semester of hanging out with our group of friends, it was time to go our separate ways for Christmas break. Of course I missed my friends from college, but I seemed to miss Ricardo more than I anticipated. After returning from break, Ricardo and I began to spend more and more time together. After many baseball games, bike rides, library dates, Jonesboro trips, and open dorm visits, Ricardo finally asked me to be his girlfriend. And as they say, the rest is history.

Ricardo and I traveled to Panama to visit his family for Christmas. We spent the first few days of our trip visiting his extended family and friends, and then we went out for a beach trip. We got up early in the mornig to catch the boat and set sail for the beach. It was a gorgeous, sunny day. We relaxed on the shore, swam in the ocean, and ate lunch. Ricardo asked me to go swimming with him so we set off in the ocean. We began talking about our future and talking about being engaged. I began to be hopeful that 2020 would be the year he would propose, but he had other plans. Ricardo David brought his camera on the trip and began taking pictures of us. Ricardo asked me to go to shore with him to take more photos. Ricardo suggested that we turn our back to the camera with our arms around each other and posing with our other hand. We held this pose for quite a while, and I became a little suspicious. I thought maybe something was wrong with the camera, and then I heard Daniela saying “just one moment, just one moment!” I turned my head to see what was going on, and there was Ricardo, down on his knee, with a beautiful box of roses and a ring laying on top. He asked me to marry him, and of course I said, “You’re joking. You’re kidding. This isn’t real!” After many laughs and tears, Ricardo’s family, unsure of what I was saying, finally said “soooo sí?” I began to laugh and yell “sí sí sí!”