We're getting married!

Andrew and I met through Cornerstone, a church on campus at Illinois State University, in the fall of 2019. We started attending the Freshmen Connect small group that met weekly for games, discipleship, and fun! Andrew and I quickly became friends and spent time together at Cornerstone events and meeting up to hear more about each others’ stories. We enjoyed spending time together and our friendship grew. When the pandemic hit halfway through our freshmen year of college, we kept in touch over text and a couple of quarantine FaceTime calls. We both returned to campus for the fall of 2020 and continued spending time together with our friend group. We learned we both loved to sing and make music. We met up a couple of times to sing worship songs together. We also enjoyed watching a TV show together. In February of sophomore year, Andrew and I were hanging out after watching the latest episode of the show, and he told me that he liked me and asked if I wanted to go on a date. I told him that I saw us as really good friends and wasn’t interested in anything more. I thought everything would be awkward and our friendship would end. Thankfully after a little bit of space, we managed to stay friends. We stayed friends throughout junior year of college, participating in Cornerstone events, hanging out, singing worship songs and watching the TV show. We also started serving on Cornerstone’s worship team together. The summer after junior year we both participated in a leadership program in Estes Park, Colorado. Andrew, another friend and I made the 15-16 hour drive out there while singing lots of worship and Hamilton tunes! While we didn’t spend a lot of time together over the summer, we did hang out occasionally. We returned to campus in the fall of 2022 for our senior year and that’s when everything changed. I started having feelings for Andrew. I would look forward to seeing him, I wanted to hang out with him, and when we weren’t together I would wonder what he was doing. However, I had myself convinced that I was just overreacting, and it was too late for Andrew to like me back. We were spending more time together than we ever had and we were also co-leading our church’s worship team. After my roommates said they thought Andrew liked me, I texted him asking if we could talk the next day and he said yes. The next day I told him that I liked him… and he said he liked me too!!!! We were both pretty terrified to take any next steps because we didn’t want to risk losing our friendship if the relationship didn’t work out. After lots and lots of talking and praying with each other and trusted friends/family we decided to take a step and go on a date, October 9th, 2022. We went on a few more dates and decided to officially start dating on November 9th, 2022. We both graduated from Illinois State in May of 2023 with much uncertainty about our future careers and next steps in our relationship. We both moved back home to the suburbs and started working new jobs, continuing to date and seek the Lord for next steps. Some favorite dates/memories include going to Cubs games, beach days at the Indiana Dunes, and worshipping together! On August 31st, 2024, Andrew proposed at a local park where we had previously spent many afternoons talking, walking, and singing together. I said YES, rejoicing and trusting the Lord for His sustaining grace and provision in our future marriage. We are counting down the days until March 22. God has written the sweetest story for us and we wouldn’t change a thing about it. God’s timing was so much better than ours. We are grateful for the good work He has done in and through us, and we look ahead with expectant joy and hope for all that He will do! Praise God from whom all blessings flow.