Our story begins....with a summer bucket list. I was almost done with my bucket list except for one last item, ‘go on a date.”

So like any true love story starts, I downloaded a dating app and started swiping. The first guy that popped up on my feed was a kinda dorky, cute, Christian guy, so I swiped right. We chatted for a bit and I asked if we could meet in person, he said yes and we scheduled a date September 9th.

While I knew I would soon complete the bucket list my friend knew I needed to go on a date and wasn't sure if I could find one, so she set me up with someone. In addition to the two dates that week, another guy from the app asked if I wanted to grab dinner. I was in a c’est la vie kinda mood so I said why not God? 3 dates, with 3 different guys in 3 days, I can do that.

Date #1: Lobster Guy (friend set up), he was very nice, loved God had a decent date just not what I was looking for.

Date #2: Pastor’s Son (app), he was so sweet and kind, just not for me (I would walk all over him lol).

Date #3: (Looked) Homeschooled Kid? (app): Very sweet and surprisingly handsome, his picture did not do him justice. I’m happy to say he did not lie when he said he works out regularly.

There were a lot of mishaps in the beginning of Date #3….such as, me being 1 hr late to the date (due a storm that knocked out power for all the traffic lights and tree branches being everywhere), me mistakenly saying I had a kid (*I do not have a kid), breaking my heel, being hungry, being wet from a rain storm, and sitting next to some smoker who was very very distracting.

After a rough start of the first date, Guy #3 said a quick prayer and things seemed to turned around...the date was actually really good. Five and a half hours later we parted ways and I knew he was most likely going to be my boyfriend. I wasn’t sure how but I had a feeling, I just need to convince him of that.

Little did I know God saved the best for last because months later that same man proposed to me and is now my fiancé.

I love you Aaron, and I love how God has worked in our lives and woven our stories together so far. I can’t wait for the future to see where he leads us.

Before meeting up with Elena for our first date, I had been going on dates with other people. They had not been going great and quite frankly I was tired of spending money on first dates. I had told myself that if this date did not go well, I would take a long pause on dating, given that fact that nothing was panning out like I hoped.

On our first date I messed up the reservation time and accidentally gave her the wrong address. We ended up meeting one hour later than we were supposed to due to a lot of miscommunications.

When she arrived and I saw her, she was way prettier in person verses her photos. She dressed really nicely and had a wonderful smile. At first, I had a hard time connecting with her because there was a live band playing at the restaurant and I was hungry so it was hard for me to focus and keep the conversation flowing. About 30 mins into dinner that changed due to the fact that the band stopped playing for the night, both of us has eaten some food, and we were able to focus and listen to each other. That’s when we started to really connect and have some deeper conversations.

From that day on I had a feeling that things were going to be different with her vs the previous girls I had dated. We both seemed to enjoy the deeper conversations and also really enjoy each other’s company. I wanted to see her again, and get to know her more. So I asked her out on a second date that night (and yes, I was a gentleman and didn’t kiss her on the 1st date). Soon after that first date I introduced her to my friends and family, and she meshed really well with them. As I started to show her my world, I realized how well she fit into it. I started to see her in my life all the time, and it made me realize I couldn’t imagine seeing my life without her. I knew I was going to propose to her and make her my wife.