We're so excited to celebrate with you!

In the late summer of 2017 I was made aware that I was missing an older brother in the line-up of a family I already loved dearly in my church. Little did I know how much he would end up meaning to me. He might say otherwise but I definitely made the first move. September 15, 2017 was the first day that we exchanged words over text conversation due to being halfway across the world from one another. We talked all the time despite having a crazy time difference and free time that definitely did not align together. I did not have to wait long though to meet the guy I had fallen head over feet for because he came home from being stationed in Okinawa, Japan three short (seemed like long) months later. The first time we met was not how he had pictured it, but it was everything I'd been waiting for. Meeting him in the airport that day, I felt an instant connection with him and I could already tell he was different. We were together sixteen days until he had to move to his next duty station. I had prepared myself for long distance but what came after that day was more difficult than I'd ever imagined. I traveled back and forth from Ohio to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina a few times over the two and a half years we spent apart. We decided early on that we would wait to get married until I had finished school and he was no longer enlisted. In our long distance relationship style he came home for good right before a global pandemic hit and our long distance, though no longer that far away continued for a few more months until my protocols at work were more solidified and I felt like I wouldn't expose him to anything. Now we come to today and we are engaged getting closer to marriage with every day that passes and I can't help but smile. The Marine from across the world that became by boyfriend and then my fiancé is about to be my husband and I cherish every memory we've made along the way. I love you dearly Wes and I can't wait for this next chapter of our lives together.

In the summer of 2017, I was stationed on the otherside of the world in Japan on the small island of Okinawa. Living the Marine life. I was given the contact information to talk to her, but I decided to give it some time before I contacted her (being coy) letting her think that she is making the first move. Once we spoke I felt an immediate connection and we hit it off. Upon my return home for Christmas we really connected. For the next two years we continued talking and she would visit me in Camp Lejeune. I knew that I loved her and on one of her visits as we were walking on the beach I told her that and from there my love only grew. In the winter of 2021 I surprised her by proposing the day before Valentines Day on the snow covered top of the hill af Rising Park. My love for her continues to grow everyday.