It was New Years Eve and both Max and I had been invited to an engagement party for our friends. Both of us were reluctant to go because of a lack of a love to kiss at midnight. Neither one of us knew God had other plans for that night. We were introduced by a mutual friend while we were standing around the fire and ended up talking until midnight. When the clock struck midnight Max very sweetly asked for a midnight kiss and I responded "absolutely" (obviously happy that the night turned out better than I expected). At the end of the night Max gave me his number (the wrong number) and we parted ways. Max says he knew that night that he had met the woman he would marry. The next day I received a text message from a random number saying that it was Max and he had given me the wrong number. We went on a double date that night and a couple days after I had to go back up to school in Maryland. Max and I ended up talking every day after the day we met and never ran out of things to talk about. Although it took a little longer for me than it did for him, I soon realized that I wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with such an amazing man.

It was a freezing cold March day during Mardi Gras and Max's friends were in town visiting. Since it was his friend's first time in town we decided to all go out for a boat ride into the swamp. Even though it was abnormally cold for this kind of adventure, I thought nothing of it because it was something that we did all the time. We rode through all the beautiful moss covered trees and tied up at the first spot Max ever took me on the boat. We all got out to walk around, and I was still completely clueless. As we stood looking around, I asked his friend to take a picture of us. After the first picture Max took his hat off (I still had no idea what was about to happen); it wasn't until Max turned and looked at me and said "So...". I'll never forget the way he said that one word because it was the tone in his voice that made my heart jump and finally understand why we were out in the middle of the swamp in the freezing cold! He proceeded to get down on one knee and ask for my hand in marriage, and my response, just as it was when he asked to kiss me on the night we met, was "Absolutely!"