I have spent the majority of my childhood growing up in Cookeville, Tennessee until I decided to leave for college and go to Milligan University in Johnson City. While I left my hometown for college, so did Aleyna. She left Mt. Juliet to go to college at Tennessee Tech in Cookeville.

Obviously, this distance didn’t keep us apart forever! After our first semester, I came back to Cookeville for winter break and Aleyna was staying in Cookeville for most of the break due to work. Lucky for me, my two best friends from high school had become apart of Aleyna’s college friend group. I got invited to go bowling with a few people from the group and this is where I met Aleyna for the first time.

I get into the car with my friend. We start introducing ourselves and I stop at Aleyna. We both say “Do I know you from somewhere?” We never could figure out if we did know each other, but I often think it was at least a sign of how well we would get to know each other later on.

While we did not instantly start dating, like I wanted, we both went on our separate ways for pretty much the rest of college. We kept up with each other through mutual friends and when I was back in town. Until our last winter break of college, when we finally decided to date! Through this time, I have grown to love and care about Aleyna more than I thought I ever could. She pursues the Lord with her life dedicated to what the Lord has called her to and makes me better by pushing me in every area of my life (especially at cleaning).


When looking over the time that I have known Aleyna, I cannot help but see the Lord’s timing in it all. He has grown both of us in our separate places and brought us together at what I believe was His right timing. I pray the Lord continues to work in both of our lives, as we look to God, to grow closer to Him and to each other. May our marriage be one that glorifies Christ and makes Christ known in everything.

So the real story…well, he got most of it but there are some major details he left out.

We met in Adie’s (my roomie of 5 years) car in the bowling alley parking lot. The next night, I get a call from Caden asking me to go to donuts at Ralph’s in Cookeville. Well, I remember telling him I was in my pajamas and really didn’t want to go out that night trying to nicely decline his date because I just met the guy! He persisted and asked if I would want to go to coffee with him in the morning. I said sure!

I met him at Poet’s Coffee Shop and he learned at that moment I did, in fact, not drink coffee. He bought my tea! We sat and talked for what felt like a short period of time, but by the end of it, three hours had gone by. Afterwards, I told him I wasn’t looking to date anyone and we would just be better as friends. He was okay with that… so I thought. Christmas break of 2020-2021 we became besties! We would go on hikes, to Walmart, find old fire towers and climb, have dinner together, go on drives, and so much more. Yes, I probably did lead him on at the time, looking back, but I always reminded him that we were just friends!

January of 2021, before Caden headed back to school, he tried one more time to be more than just besties. I said no and life went on so I thought. (Later, come to find out he went on a very, very…very long bike ride to try to get over what had just happened.)

While we were not dating, we kept up with each other’s lives through FBC Cookeville, friends, and while he was on breaks. Neither of us ever stayed single long in college, so dating each other or the thought of that was kinda out of the cards.

I do remember a time in sophomore year while I was single and he was single that I thought Caden was the best guy and I really missed my chance on that one, but he started dating someone else. So, I push the thought of liking him out of my mind.

Then, December 2023 roles around. Caden is in town and I was at Soul Craft, a coffee shop in Cookeville. I saw him and went to say hi. I apologized for what I was wearing because I was in the baggiest sweatshirt and sweatpants ever, with wet hair because it was my day off school and was working really hard on my teacher licensure portfolio (EdTPA), if you know…you know. He was like it doesn’t matter what you’re wearing it’s your day off! Neither of us really thought anything of our conversation.

The next week, we had a game night with a bunch of our friends at mine and Adie’s apartment. We had so much fun, but every time I looked Caden’s way his eyes flashed away from me really fast and I was like…ohhh. We all stayed up really late that night and talked until wee hours in the morning.

I got up for work the next day and told Adie that I thought about texting Caden. She said I don’t know about that. (She knew some things behind the scenes about Caden still potentially liking me that I was never informed of until afterwards.) Well, I did not take her advice. I texted Caden that I had a fun time the night before and would not mind if he took a job in Cookeville. It wasn’t too direct, but it was enough to let him know I might be interested. Boy let me tell you…less than 30 seconds went by and he responded with would you want to talk about that tonight…I said sure. He picked me up after work and drove us around Cookeville like we used too. After a long hour conversation, he decided that he didn’t want to let me escape again and wanted to date me (there is so much more that happened…if you want to know more just ask). I trusted him and said yes too because deep down I knew I really did think he was the best guy in the world! And four months later, I said yes for the rest of my life, here on Earth!!!!

I am so thankful for the man Caden is in my life. His heart is so gentle and loving. Each day he tells me that he is falling more and more in love with me! He pursues the Lord, in order to pursue me with his whole heart. I am in love with the man he is!! Some might say I’m crazy, others might ask are you sure, but I know that the Lord has ordained this because of all the circumstances that had to happen for us to get here is undeniably His plan!

Thanks for reading!! I know it was long between that two of us! :)