After living in a discipleship school in separate wings for almost a whole year Caleb and Emily finally spent time in a group together having fun. On May 8th of 2023, Caleb and Emily went to see a movie together with a group of friends in Brenham (with the old movie theater seats that don’t recline and sit you really close to the person next to you). At this movie Caleb and Emily shared popcorn and began to develop a mutual interest for one another.

After the movie theater, Caleb left for the remainder of May into June for a summer discipleship project. However, Caleb didn’t finish his time overseas in mid June, but joined the trip Emily was apart of in the Netherlands. The friendship between Caleb and Emily began to grow as they served in the Netherlands, from praying for and telling students about Jesus on the university campus, to hosting a USA party and serving the local church. As more time was spent in close proximity with one another traveling around the Netherlands, Caleb and Emily began to see more qualities in one another that they had prayed for in a future spouse throughout the trip.

Once Caleb and Emily got home from their trip overseas all they wanted to do was spend time with one another, both new they were interested, but Caleb wanted to make sure he knew he really liked Emily before he asked her on a date. So after a long 3 weeks of Emily waiting on Caleb to ask her out, he went to search for flowers so he could ask Emily on a date. After looking at 3 different stores to find Emily’s favorite flower he found them with the help of some friends and asked her that Sunday! But also had a backup bouquet of lemons and greenery as apart of an inside joke (Caleb said Emily’s favorite flower was lemons because she always pointed out lemon print things 😂). Emily said yes to going on a date with Caleb that following Wednesday!

Caleb took Emily on a surprise picnic date at lake walk by POV in Bryan, TX. It was a warm day in early August, but that didn’t matter to either of them, Caleb and Emily were just excited to be pursuing one another as more than friends. While star gazing they talked late into the night about everything they could think of, and as the Lord led them. A week after their first date, they went on a second and made it official! August 9th, 2023! Caleb and Emily over the next many months continued to seek the Lord and search His heart for one another, and found that the Lord would continue to answer every one of their prayers for a future spouse in each other over the next 4 months.

After a full day of celebrating Caleb’s birthday, spending the day in Madisonville, TX and coming back in to town Caleb began to stall as they made their way back to Emily’s house for a dinner celebration with a few friends. As they pulled up to the dinner there was a beautiful gazebo (that Caleb built in 3 days and had his family and friends assemble the day of) lit up and prepared for a proposal. On December 15th, 2023 Caleb got down on one knee and asked Emily to spend the rest of their lives together and be his wife, and she said ABSOLUTELY YES! It was a night full of celebration and excitement for the two of them!