Lucas and I met in high school and rode the school bus together. We shared a lot of the same interests, including music taste and the friends we hung out with, continuing to come in and out of each others lives as good friends after school. After nearly 10 years of knowing each other, we started dating and realized that we both had feelings for each other long before that. Unfortunately, we couldn't make it work for very long, since we were both in the midst of what would become the hardest phases of our lives, and our paths eventually separated again. During the next four years, we would both, independently, face some of the biggest hurdles that had came our way, but we both came out on the other side and changed our lives for ourselves and our children. We decided to visit each other in December of 2020, catching up and seeing how much we'd both grown and changed. We fell in love all over again and haven't left each others side since that day. Despite our past, and the struggles we work through and continue to work through, we find comfort in knowing that we have someone who we both still consider our best friend, someone who understands where we have been and where we wanna go in the future. Being married is something that neither of us saw for ourselves or even wanted, and now, we are both ready and so excited to start a new chapter together, and blend our family. We wanna thank everyone for celebrating this journey with us.

In the early summer of 2021 we decided to start saving up our extra money for a weekend getaway to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee for after the Christmas Holiday's. I figured it'd be the perfect opportunity to show her just how serious I was and started shopping for an engagement ring. After a few months of browsing, I came across the perfect ring! Figuring out exactly how to get the ring to the house without arousing her suspicion was an issue of it's own. Shelby usually makes it home from work before I do so having it shipped here wasn't gonna work. Only thing I could think of to do was to let my future Mother-in-Law in on my idea and have it shipped to her house, to which she agreed. Problem Solved. (= The day after Christmas Shelby and I woke up, loaded the car, drank a Redbull and headed for the Smoky Mountains. With the ring stashed away in my suitcase, I rode the entire way there nervous; wondering to myself exactly how or where I was gonna ask her to marry me and equally as nervous about if she would even agree. After we walked into our Airbnb cabin in the mountains I knew it was the perfect spot. Inside the cabin was a stone set fireplace. While Shelby was in the bathroom changing into her PJ's, I hustled to the bedroom to obtain the ring from my luggage. I set the ring on the mantle above the fireplace and waited for my chance to talk it onto her finger. We sat in front of the fire and discussed what we planned on doing the following day. After coming to an agreement on the agenda, we decided to head out back to soak in the hot tub. Shelby stood up and turned her back to me for a second, and while she did, I grabbed the ring from the mantle. She turned around to say something and that's when I asked her. I nervously dropped to one knee and proposed to the only woman I'd EVER considered marrying. As her beautiful brown eyes filled with tears and her hand rose to cover her mouths surprise, she shook her head yes and then validated it by trying on her new engagement ring. It was a size too small. Lol. But hey, the engagement wouldn't have defined us properly by going 100% smooth.