Tyler and I first met at a Southwest Noonday on August 24, 2022!

We really didn’t become friends until January of 2023. After months of us being friends, I caught an interest in April, but surprise: Tyler did not like me in that way! (Don’t worry, I changed his mind.)

One of the first questions Tyler asked me was if I liked giraffes. (I promise this is relevant to the story.) 

We both served on Lead Team at our BSU, and we had an upcoming LT retreat to New Orleans coming up. After a long talk at Dave & Busters, Tyler finally admitted he sparked an interest in me. We talked until 2am in the hotel lobby that night sharing our testimonies and how we grew up. The next day, we went to Audubon Zoo. Can you guess what we were excited to see? Giraffes. We made our way down the giraffe exhibit, and we were saddened to find out the giraffe had passed away. (We were very disappointed.)

Anyway, after some time getting to know each other better, he finally decided to ask me on a date on May 14, but he told me we were not becoming official any time soon. (Yeah, right.)

We both went to Central Hills that summer, and in doing so, we saw how much each other loved serving the Lord. We knew after the first week of kids’ camp that we were each other’s future spouses. 

On July 9, Tyler made it official and asked me to be his girlfriend. He made it very clear to me that he intended to marry me.

After 5 months of being with each other, Tyler asked me to go to the Hattiesburg Zoo for the Light Up Christmas Show! (He told me they had giraffes, so I was so excited.) After walking around for a bit, I did not see one giraffe, besides an outline of one in Christmas lights.. 

Tyler, then, pulls me in-front of the giraffe exhibit and pops the question. After accepting (obviously), he then says, “I told you they had giraffes.”