Robert's POV It was an unassuming Tuesday night, late in our sophomore year. I, as I often was on lazy college nights, hanging out with Will (best man shout out). We were putting down some hot Pizza Press when Jace facetimed. Jace calling was nothing out of the ordinary, but this time, I noticed a breathtakingly beautiful girl in the background who I just knew I had to meet. Sure enough, Jace was inviting us out!... Let's just say I was easily convinced. The moment I walked into the piano bar I saw Sammy, beaming with her genuine smile and looking right back at me. I weaved through all our friends to go up to her and give her a great big hug like we’ve been best friends for years. She tells it like I didn’t let go for minutes, which honestly, isn’t far from the truth. We talked and danced that whole night forgetting anybody else was there, and the rest is history! Sammy’s POV It all began with a girls night that soon became a set-up-Sammy night at a fun local piano bar. After briefly noticing him on facetime, I thought he looked and sounded really cute. Next, came his intentional pursuit. Robert left his mark by heading right into that piano bar, not saying hello to anyone else, and going right in for a hug - a confident man. When you meet someone, you think, if you're going to hug it'll be more of a catch and release hug, but Robert boldly decided not to release. 10 outta 10 on the first impression. Within just a few seconds I realized there was no more need to assess whether he was interested. The next time we hung out, Robert came over and helped me pack for Kaleo... my NINE WEEK summer discipleship program in Florida. I'm sure we were both thinking well... I really hope we can resume where we left off when we’re both back in town. Surely enough, we did!

A week after we met, Sammy went off to her summer-long discipleship program. I was sad to see her go, but just as intrigued by her decision to spend the summer serving others and learning about God… My summer involved other plans to say the least. When she got back, it was full on pursuit. It didn’t take long before we were two-stepping at the Broken Spoke, cheering on the Longhorns at every home game, and officially dating! As Sammy and I grew closer, I learned more about her relationship with God. I hadn’t met anyone who so strongly identified with Christ and lived in full surrender and reverence to Him… which I admit took some maturing to appreciate. But as I did, and grew in my own faith, I started to see Sammy as someone I could truly spend the rest of my life with. After a semester of dating, we jetted off to Europe with Will and other McCombs students to study abroad in Budapest! Spoiler alert: due to some unexpected events (war in Ukraine next door!) we didn’t get any school credit whatsoever. So, it was literally a 3-month long vacation in Europe! We didn't really mind. We just spent the time traveling Europe, meeting new people, and of course… falling in love. My last year in college was extremely transformative for me and our relationship. We started regularly attending a local church called Red Rocks. I joined a UT bible study there and quickly made friends with Solomon, Josh, and Adam. I envied their identity and confidence in Christ, which led me to seek questions about where I had been placing mine. Not long after, I met Bill Walker. Bill is a professor, priest, and leader for a Christian ministry at UT. We met weekly to hash out all my questions and reflections about God. He/God did a pretty good job because at the end of that semester Sammy and I got baptized! Since then, our relationship has been about so much more than mere friendship and compatibility. Through our faith we truly see our relationship as a gift from God and opportunity to serve/love Him and others. We’re so excited to embark on this journey and couldn’t be more grateful to be kicking it off with you all!

Robert has been such a gift to know and love. We began our dating journey when I got back from Kaleo in 2021. Our first date consisted of pizza and two stepping. Robert was light on classes this semester, so he filled in the time by becoming my finance tutor and occasionally doing my homework so he could take me on fun dates. At some point, I decided to study abroad the following semester, and invited Robert to join. He quickly decided he was in. Robert, Will and I were off to Budapest! While there, Robert and I took many sweet weekend trips. To nobody's surprise, our favorite destination was Italy. In Budapest, we found a wonderful church that we quickly got plugged into called Riverside. There was a missionary couple from Canada who led a bible study series on Love & Relationships that we went to each Wednesday. Something to know about Robert is that he is SUCH a romantic, and for that I am so grateful. We loved this bible study and all the people we met through it. He so intentionally pursued me in our dating relationship, and made his desire for engagement very clear. When we got back from study abroad, we enjoyed our senior year of college together. Graduation weekend was a highlight for sure; Adam took our graduation photos, we hosted our families for a fun-packed weekend, and we got baptized together!! Since graduating, we have both been working our finance jobs in Dallas, and we enjoy our Sunday mornings at the nursery at our church (shoutout Watermark) hanging out with the 1-2 year olds before service. I am overjoyed to have Robert as a life partner. He loves God, he loves me unconditionally, he is humble, servant-hearted, and he is wise. Some of the sweet things we get excited about in our future include serving our community together, hosting in our future home, starting a business together, raising children, and maybe even raising our own chickens too.