The first time I remember hearing about Alex I didn’t even know his name, all I knew was that my friend Taylor had asked if I would ever be interested in being set up on a date, she also asked if I liked beards. I wasn’t quite sure how to respond so I said maybe… Fast forward some time later I remember that it was early 2021, we were still wearing masks to church and one Sunday after just finishing stacking the chairs Taylor introduced me to Alex. I remember he made an instant good impression because he told me he liked my mask which happened to be my favorite one because it had a honey bee on it. It wasn’t until later that it dawned on me that Alex was that man that Taylor had told me about. Alex and I started talking after Church on most Sundays as well as serving in Awana together, where short talks soon grew into long conversations, he eventually asked me out. My life was quite busy when Alex first asked me out, of course I knew I liked Alex as a friend, however I wasn't quite sure I wanted to start dating yet, I wanted to take dating very seriously and I wanted to get to know him on a deeper level because I saw great potential. It was about a year of continuing to see him at church and with countless prayers I begin to make room in my life for dating, I started to grow more and more in my affection for Alex until one day I finally told I liked him and that I wanted to spend even more one on one time together, a couple weeks after that he asked what we should call this relationship? Which I immediately answered what about dating? Needless to say he agreed.

I was in my early 20s when I was unsure marriage was on the table in God's plan for my life. I started realizing that I needed to focus on him first and if it was his will he would provide. So around 2021 my friends Taylor and Noah Boyd mentioned this gal named Sara who liked board games and cooking both things I enjoy. I was definitely curious, so one day we were both at church and they introduced me to her. We got along immediately, and I wanted an opportunity to get to know her better. Later that month I was throwing a board game party and I asked Taylor if there was anyone at the camp who liked board games. Taylor Understood the assignment and invited Sara. We saw each other here and there and we also served in Awana together. It took me a long time to get to the point where I even could ask her out. But we got there! There were lots of gaps but we started seeing each other more near the end of August 2023 after us hanging out a good amount in September. I asked her what we wanted to call this relationship and we decided it was time to call this dating.

Proposal story It was at the first game day I was pretty sure I wanted Sara to be my wife as of course she loved runner ducks who wouldn't want your future wife to love runner ducks! Before I even proposed we had already picked a month to get married I just needed to pop the question. So I came up with a multi part plan. After Sara sent me pictures of the ring she wanted I started to get all the pieces together. On her birthday I asked to borrow her phone so I could confirm the geocache location for her "Birthday" was not one she had gotten already. I then took that info and found a geocache where the coordinates were off, so that when we got there the fake cache would be in the correct place. Geocaches have a log you write in to let others know you have been there. So I made my own log, I put tons of names/times that we went on dates or hung out so she would have to open it up and see the question "Will you marry me Honey Bee?" There were three checkboxes, "Yes", "Definitely", and "Absolutely" She checked the Absolutely. Hilary (one of Sara's close friends) then came and took a million photos. (Hilary also hung out with Sara the whole day before including getting her nails done but that was Sara's idea) I had a feeling she knew it was that day but she didn't realize the cache was fake so I think that is a win in my book.