Welcome To Our Forever

Some people would call it fate, others may label it as destiny, family might say it was all apart of God’s plan; but no matter which way you look at it, an Orlando man meeting a young woman from South Florida at an event that we will just say was less than conversational is a one in a million chance. A Chance that led to a 6+ year relationship of Love, Growth, and on Oct 11th, a Beautiful Union. Looking back on that day always seems more like an intricate operation than a moment of chance, a series of fortunate events would lead to one man noticing one woman in a room of one hundred. It always seems like a calculated execution of occurrences rather than mere coincidence that placed her in the right place at the right time, a time where a Timid Nate was nowhere to be found. On a regular day this would have ended in a different manner: Nate sees pretty girl he doesn’t know, Nate smiles, she hopefully smiles back, Nate turns and walks away with the smallest, yet safest of victories! And Being that “Friendly” generally isn’t the first word one would use to describe Tae, you would think being approached at an event by a stranger in a place far from home wouldn’t have gone very well for anyone who attempted to court her. But Timid Nate was replaced with a courageous gentleman filled with multiple Iced Teas from Long Island that day, and a guarded Tae was gone for the weekend, instead, there was a lady who decided to take a chance on a smile. This led to a hello, which flowed into a dance, which blossomed into the love we share today. Looking back on that day, there is no way our meeting was chance. That day was our destiny.

I proposed at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, on Aug. 27th, ‘17. Our trip was planned months in advance, the proposal.. not so much. 3 wks before I decided that I would propose. I thought making the decision to propose would be the hard part, I was wrong. After picking the ring (thanks Pinterest), 2 returns, 1 overnight shipping, emails, calls and a conversation with her parents’ minutes before our flight, my plan was in motion! Well kind of, I knew I would propose, but I had no idea where or when. On the 2nd day I took the ring with me and figured I would KNOW when to propose, almost as if we were in a movie. Yeh, that didn’t happen!! I wish you could see how many times I pulled out her ring and quickly retracted it at each stop.. “nah, this isn’t it” or “ I can find a better place”. We took a bike ride to the tower, and I thought, “this is perfect!”. That was SPOILED by the smell of urine and street peddlers in front of the Tower. I thought I would have to move on, then we heard that the tower JUST reopened for visitors after months of being closed. So, we went up. Once at the top a man had a similar idea and proposed in front of us. He said a few words, she said yes and as if at a golf tournament a few claps were heard. I then knew, “I have to find some black people” I KNOW they won’t let me down in commemorating this occasion. Right on queue a black family asked if I could take a picture for them. Smiling, I obliged and asked them to take a video of us. You would have to reference the video because I can’t remember what I told her. The Sound of my heart was too loud for me to hear my own voice. I snapped out of it when I heard 1 of the women whisper, “please say yes”. I noticed Squish frozen, I thought, “the amount of times women probably run this scenario you’d think she’d be ready” . Already knowing her answer I reminded her that she actually had to respond. She nodded and said yes, and like the eccentric individuals I know us to be the crowd broke into a cheer!