We originally met through our campus ministry, Fellowship of Christian Univeristy (FOCUS), while we were both in our undergraduate degrees at University of Texas at Dallas. At the time FOCUS was doing a smaller sermon set on Tuesday evenings, and we met here through conversations and games after worship!

After months of getting to know each other, we went on our first date at the start of the new year. We had lots of fun dates, from cooking together, Six Flags, picnics, and studying together. The semester ended early because of covid, and Ben originally went back to Austin. I was nervous - I really liked this guy and didn’t know if he was coming back to Dallas! Thankfully, a few weeks later he decided to navigate the pandemic back in the metroplex, and we spent lots of time together at parks, on walks, and any other outdoor thing we could find. In April we made it official (since we had already been seeing each other multiple times a week for months anyway!) and spent the next almost two years exploring new places together, trying as many mom and pop restaurants as possible, and still spending lots of time outdoors and with friends!

We had been doing pre-engagement counseling for months, so when we decided to go on a trip together right before Christmas with Ben’s family and right after with mine, Ben decided it was the perfect time to propose. We were skiing in Utah while with his family, and spent one of the days exploring the downtown area, looking at all of the shops. We decided to hike up a hill, and at the top Ben started to propose - BUT he had been messing with me for weeks about proposing, so I thought it was a joke! (Our Save the Date picture is from just minutes before he asked me!) While I was telling him that I trusted his timing and plan for our engagement, he had to tell me to stop blabbering so that he could actually propose. I was so excited when he got down on one knee that I put the ring on myself before he even got a chance!