Austin:

I first met Miriam in college shortly after she joined ROTC. My first impression was that she was a smart girl, though she was VERY shy. I figured pretty quickly she must have been homeschooled. I didn't ask her out immediately because I was not looking for a relationship at the time.

A few months later, though I still was not looking for a relationship, she volunteered to come help me sit at a recruiting table in the campus center at UAFS.

We sat down and started asking questions about one another since we didn't know much about each other. Well, it wasn't long before we were speaking about God, His church, where we fit into it, St. Augustine of hippo (my patron saint), and St. Ignatius of Antioch. I could tell that unlike anyone I had ever met in my adult life, she had a genuine, vibrant faith in our great God.

When I got home, I simply had to pray and ask God for guidance. After praying, I decided I must attempt to at least date this girl and see how things work out. After all, people with her kind of faith are exceedingly rare, and I couldn't risk dragging my feet to begin the relationship.

As it turned out, we hold nearly everything in common. We hold the same faith, politics, desire for a family, and desires for our lives.

God has worked all this out and given me a woman I genuinely didn't think I'd find. From consigning myself to a life as a single bachelor forever, to desiring nothing more than to cherish and love my sweet Miriam forever, I have gained so much joy and a charity spiritually that I didn't realize I needed as desperately as I did.

Genesis 2:18 ❤️

Miriam:

I met Austin in ROTC and my first impression of him was that he was cocky and a little too loud. Besides initially thinking that he was cute, I really hadn't given him too much thought until I noticed that he would often invite everybody in our ROTC group to church and I observed how genuine he was about his faith.

One week we had been recruiting for ROTC and I had helped almost every day because I was free after my morning classes, but on Thursday (September 22nd), Austin was on the roster to sit there and recruit too, so we ended up sitting there for about 2 hours and talking to each other the whole time (nobody got recruited that day). We haven't stopped talking since!

I first fell in love with Austin's faith and his genuine care for the souls around him and since then I've fallen in love with his strong work ethic, his goofy sense of humor, and his sweet and confident personality. I am so beyond blessed to have such an amazing man that I will get to call my husband.

I can't wait to spend forever with you Austin Blaine!

Ecclesiastes 4:9 ❤️