I grew up in Arizona and ended up going to Texas Tech University with my best friend from high school, Justin. We both got jobs in Dallas and moved there shorty after graduating. It is in this city that I met my future bride, fell in love, and where we will be married.

The week Justin and I moved to Dallas, we met a girl who lived down the hall and we became friends quickly. Amanda also knew this girl from doing a rotation for her occupational therapy degree in Savannah, Georgia. One weekend in August, Amanda came to visit our mutual friend in Dallas and that Friday night, I met my beautiful future wife for the first time. They were “too cool” for us that night and already had plans to go to Fort Worth, but the next night we all hung out. I got to know her better and found out she liked sports, rap music, and worked with kids with disabilities. Perfect in every aspect. I was able to very sneakily get her phone number that night as well. While taking an Uber back to the apartment complex, I asked if I could have her number so we all could split the cost of the ride back and it worked perfectly. I then came up with a great plan to get her to talk to me on a regular basis. I asked her to tell me a fun fact about The University of Georgia everyday, as I heard about how great of a school it was about 100 times in the first night we hung out. I’ve talked to her everyday since.

I fell in love with this sweet girl quickly. I am so thankful God placed her in my life and destined her to become my wife.

So I know you’re probably wondering: which came first, the move to Texas or this boy? And the answer is that God, in his infinite wisdom and sovereignty, allowed the two to come together simultaneously in my life.

In August 2017, after I finished school and was studying for my boards exam, I came to Dallas to visit a friend and I met Connor through her on my first night in town. I thought that he was hands down the cutest boy I had ever seen and was bummed when he rejected our offer to hang out that night. Thankfully, I got the chance to talk to him more as we were all hanging out the next night. I found out he was from Arizona (my favorite state) and went to Texas Tech (which meant I’d win every football argument forever because SEC > Big 12) and shared several similar interests with me, including a love for Christ. He asked for my number later that evening and he thought he was being sneaky about it (he wasn’t sneaky). The next day, as we were saying bye, he told me I needed to move to Dallas.

Over the next week, we connected on various forms of social media and talked nonstop. He “tricked” me into talking to him each day by saying he’d give me a fun fact about Texas Tech each day until I knew everything there was to know about “the greatest school in the world”, so of course my rebuttal was that I’d prove to him UGA was the actual greatest. This paved the way to deeper conversations, including parts of our testimonies, our upbringings, and our dreams for our lives. With each conversation, I grew to like this boy more and more and knew that the Lord allowed our paths to cross for a special reason.

The problem was that I lived in Georgia and he lived in Texas, so I began to pray that, if the Lord would will it, doors would open for me to move and begin my career in or around Dallas. God opened those doors quickly and I accepted an outpatient pediatric position. Before I knew it, was officially moving to Texas! Connor and I began dating and the topic of marriage came up pretty quickly. Fast forward 8 months to July 15th, when Connor pulled off the sweetest proposal...