Leslie – Every year, God puts a word or phrase on my heart that He has for the upcoming year where I am challenged, encouraged and grown. My phrase for this year is “show up.” Chris – God put it on my heart at the beginning of the year to ask the question, “Why not?” And if I couldn’t come up with a good reason not to, I jumped into what He had for me. We both decided to "show up" and say, "why not?" during an all-church worship service, where we encountered each other sitting in the same row. We got the chance to encounter each other through worship and prayer. Kellie Ann, my sister and one of Leslie’s best friends, asked us to take her son to get ice cream while she cleaned up. We then got to know more about each other while walking around and talking after the service – something was sparked. On February 18, three weeks after the worship service, Leslie texted Chris to follow up about a job interview he had talked about. Little did we know, this was just the beginning… After three weeks of texting and amazing conversation, Chris realized it was time to meet in person after sitting together in church. From there, we met at Panera and got to know each other more. For the next date, Chris realized he needed to have more intention with Leslie. We went to dinner and a movie. After realizing how much we had in common, Chris told Leslie how he felt and she reciprocated the feelings. On the third date, after throwing axes and chasing a sunset at Zuma Beach, Chris asked Leslie to be his girlfriend. Our relationship has been a whirlwind where we have constantly encountered God’s goodness and faithfulness, as He has led us to have many fun dates, challenging/encouraging conversations and getting to know one another’s hopes and dreams. We both quickly realized this was something different and were willing to follow God’s timeline for us. Chris – Although it took Leslie a little longer to get on board, I knew very early on that I wanted to marry Leslie. A few months later, August to be exact, with support from our friends and family, a plan was devised for our engagement. A three-note plan commenced on September 9: Step 1) Get Leslie to think she is going on a “sister date” to get her nails done and go to a fancy dinner with her sister. Step 2) Get Leslie to the nail salon, where the council (Kellie Ann, Kelli and Silvana) is waiting to give Leslie note #1 directing them to get their nails done. Step 3) Leslie gets note #2 telling her to go Panera to recreate our first date by having the “best mac and cheese ever” (which was actually terrible). Step 4) Leslie is given note #3 in a bottle after she is able to have some coffee for the next leg of the journey. At this point, she was driven to the beach by our sisters where I was waiting to ask her to marry me. Step 5) She arrived at the spot I asked her to be my girlfriend. I had flowers and our songs were playing. After reading her the prayer that I prayed at the beginning of the year, one in which I asked God for the best woman He had for me and in which I surrendered my singleness to Him, I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me. (VIDEO ABOVE) SHE SAID YES! After heading down to the beach to take some pictures, read some specific scriptures I had picked out and prayed over our relationship, we headed back to a surprise dessert engagement party with a few friends and family to celebrate. Then we were off planning our wedding for February! It has been an amazing journey so far, and there is so much more to come. God’s timeline has been completely different than ours, yet we see his continued provision and timing in our story. Chris may have been the hare to Leslie’s tortoise, but God has brought both of us peace in the process, and we are excited to stand before the Lord, our friends and our family to say I do. We are looking forward to all of you joining us to celebrate what God is doing in our lives.