R&R

Riley and I originally met through some sweet church friends that happened to bring him to my best friend’s birthday party in 2024 where we joked about having the same name but we didn’t truly start getting to know one another until a couple weeks later. On the eve of my 19th birthday I decided to spend the afternoon at the Phoenix Community of Athens coffeehouse (now Revival City Church) where Riley and some of our other friends happened to already be. There we shared some time in conversation and realized how similar we are in several aspects (yet still so different haha)! Later that evening he and some of our friends joined me at a youth event with my family’s church where we grilled out and jumped into a freezing cold pond together! As the evening went on our friends decided we should all stay up to celebrate my 19th at midnight together and their ideal plan to do so was by forcing me to climb a building in the rain (I am terrified of heights). It was indeed a very memorable birthday full of new friendships and wet clothes! From that night on, Riley and I’s friendship only grew as we spent considerable amounts of time together - whether it was conversations of life, theology, or passions over coffee at Phoenix (RCC) or spontaneous road trips to waterfalls and to visit friends that were home for the summer. Over that summer as I grew to know Riley, and though I had already considered him one of my closest friends, I began to realized just how truly amazing he is as a man of God! In the ways he cared for others , in how he served, in his dedication to his faith and convictions, his heart for the Lord inspired me always and drew me closer to the Lord but also to him in ways I had never expected. My admiration towards him began to deepen from a close friend to the man I could see myself spending the rest of my life with but I was fully convinced that Riley could never feel that way towards me, so I packed up my feelings and continued seeing him as my close friend. About a month later my feelings were still sitting subtly in the back of my mind as I, of course, had “mastered” the act of delusion and decided I definitely didn’t feel that way anymore. Did my breath still catch a little when he hugged me? Did I still look for him in every room? Did my heart still swell when he praised the Lord? All of the above, yes, of course it did, but noooooo he was just a friendddd. Suddenly, in late July, Riley’s behavior began to change. It’s wasn’t anything drastic but it was still a change, a change a close friend would notice, especially if that close friend was actively trying to avoid deeper feelings for him. He would speak softer, stand nearer, his eyes seemed to look for mine in the midst of groups. This change threw a HUGE wrench in my plans to bury my own feelings, so of course my immediate response was to call the same best friend whose house we met at and proceed to freak out over this slight difference and whether or not it meant anything at all (super mature response). A few days later, I was preparing for a sweet reunion of friends from high school, once again back in the delusion of there being absolutely nothing at all but friendship between Riley and I. In the afternoon he randomly texted me saying he wanted to talk to me about something serious that evening, if possible… I proceeded to freak out in Walmart. That night after all my friends had left, we stood alone in my kitchen and he then told me he had developed feelings for me and if I felt the same, desired to pursue more with me, and now, a year and seven months later, he will be my husband!! Truly, Riley is all I have ever prayed for in a husband and I can’t thank the Lord enough for placing him in my life! He loves me as Christ loves the church, leading me as a man of God, rooted in the truth of His word. I could not imagine living this life and serving Christ with anyone else for “I have found him whom my soul loves.” Song of Solomon 3:4

So, I started going to phoenix community of Athens (now known as Revival City Church) and my like second or third Sunday some random joe named Michael invites me to some other random girl named Madelyn's birthday party, so naturally I went. There is where I met the entire young adult church friend group including a girl named Rylie Kirk. Now is that where I met Rylie for the first time? Yes, is that when I would classify us as meeting? No, but I have my own definitions of words sometimes. I would say Rylie and I met the day before her 19th birthday. We were both in the Phoenix Community of Athens coffee shop and it was close to when it was closing but we were both trusted people to be there after closing and so her and I were chilling in there (I think Lucas was also there) and that was when I would say we truly first met since we had our first long conversation of actually getting to know one another. Through that conversation we found out that we were basically the same person but in a different font (reference to something only Rylie will know hehe) and I remember her butterfly cap very distinctly cuz I stared at it a lot and thought it was cool. Anyways I forced myself to leave such a good conversation so I could go to work, which I thought I had that day, but turns out they had taken me off the schedule without notifying me and so I drove 30 minutes back to Bethlehem for work. Upon realizing I did not work, I promptly rejected my job's offer to work anyways and went back to Athens to see what Rylie and the gang were doing. Rylie then invited me to a youth group outing with her friend Madelyn and Madelyn's church which I accepted. It was a lake cookout event and Rylie and I hung out there, jumped in cold water together, and laughed about the fact I had to wear Lucas's swim trunks. I also helped her out that night when I found out she was stressed over not being able to pay for school (she later dropped out). Then we celebrated Rylie's birthday at midnight by forcing her to climb a building! (She has a massive fear of heights). Anyways from that day and night onward Rylie and I became very good friends and hung out all the time, so much so that people inevitably started making comments about us liking each other or asking us when we were going to start dating. We always told them "No it's not like that! We're just really good friends!" or even the dreaded.... "We're like siblings!" Ew. But as time went on, I started asking myself "man... do I like this girl..." I mean, she was a God-fearing Christian woman, I loved hanging out with her, I thought she was really cool, we went together like peanut butter and jelly, and she was very pretty as well. Well eventually I was like "Yeah, I think I do like this girl," and I then committed to telling her and then once I did and she said she felt the same, we said we would take it slow and not start officially dating yet (this was three days before we decided to officially start dating). And now here we are, almost 2 years later and she is going to be my wife :) I am so so happy and excited, and I could not have asked for a better wife than Rylie. She literally meets all the criteria I had for the woman I wanted to marry, and she is the greatest blessing the Lord bestowed to me on this earth :) I am so excited!!!!