We met in college, but we didn't always get along. I (Josie) had a pretty negative first impression of Zach. When we moved in for our freshman year, my friends and I were eager to make new connections. One of my friends mentioned a cool group of guys who wanted to hang out with us that weekend. Since it was our first year and I wanted to have the whole "college experience," I was open to meeting new people, especially guys, in line with the typical college girl's hope of a 'ring by spring.' That Friday night, we all gathered on campus to figure out a fun plan. Zach suggested going to a haunted house. I pointed out that there weren't enough seats in the car for everyone. Zach replied, "It looks like someone is just going to have to stay behind." I didn’t think that was fair since we all clearly wanted to go, and no one in my friend group was going to volunteer to stay back. So, I spoke up and said, "If there aren’t enough seats and all of us can't go, then none of us are going." Zach then responded, "Okay, well, everyone can go except for you." At that moment, I really questioned my friends' choices in choosing "good" friends because he did not come off as one! After that incident, my friends often invited me to events, but I would grumble about Zach being there, saying things like, "Ugh! Zach's going to be there....I don't know how I feel about him." As time went on and we matured, my opinion of Zach began to change. The more we hung out, the more I realized he wasn’t a total jerk. By the time we graduated, I was the only one from my original friend group who maintained a strong friendship with him, and we became the closest out of everyone. However, even then, I didn’t have romantic feelings for him. After college, we went our separate ways but kept in touch frequently. He became my guy best friend, and I was his girl best friend. We would call each other for advice, him about girls and me about my dating life. Eventually, we started having routine FaceTime watch parties every Tuesday to watch "Intervention" together. It was during these moments that I began to develop feelings for him. When I realized I had feelings for him, I held onto them for a while because it felt complicated to be developing feelings for my best friend. I remember telling a friend, "This is weird, right?" After much contemplation, I finally found the courage to express my feelings to Zach. However, God had a different plan. I also started my foster journey during that time and welcomed my first placement, who is now my daughter, and Zach went through some life-changing events of his own during that time. With everything happening, it didn’t seem like the right time to bring it up, so I pushed the idea of Zach and my feelings aside. As a new mom, my schedule became incredibly busy, and I ended up not speaking with Zach for a while. Years later, I invited him to my birthday in 2022 after not talking for some time. I asked him if he would ever date me, unprompted and without any context. He said no, but I didn’t take that as a final answer. After that, we began talking on the phone for hours, and he started to develop feelings for me as well, eventually changing his mind. When he came to Indiana for my birthday in 2022, after spending time together that night, I knew he was the one and just had to tell him. So, I told him I was going to marry him someday. Of course, he was taken aback by this since we weren't even dating, but he replied, "Wow, I can't say that yet, but that's really sweet." Little did he know that just a few months later, he would ask me to be his girlfriend, eventually leading him to say, "I'm going to marry you someday!" and then "Will you marry me?" We are so excited for our future together on June 6, 2026, and we can't wait to have everyone there to celebrate our love, our story, our family, and this new chapter of our lives!