Before we started dating Calista and I had known each other for a little over a year. We met through mutual friends in our church and ended up being in the same tight knit friend group. We got to know each other much better throughout our time as friends and really valued each other’s friendship.

Early on in our friendship and getting to know each other, Calista and I clashed in a lot of different things and were frequently annoyed or upset with each other. This could probably have been attributed to her many oldest child qualities that as a youngest sibling I was enticed to mess with.

Throughout our friendship I had always seen Calista as such an amazing servant, she would always go out of her way for the people around her, whether it was baking or cleaning, or anything else someone needed she was always willing to help. I had a lot of respect for Calista’s servitude and the hardworking nature that God had gifted her. As time went on, our friendship grew closer and healthier as we began to grow in our relationships with God and we really began to appreciate and value each other’s friendship outwardly and in a much healthier way. We enjoyed spending time together and doing stuff and I remember just loving being her friend. Calista would frequently rebound for me, and I was always so thankful for her willingness to do that for a friend at the end of the day when it would’ve been much easier for her not to.

As time progressed and springtime came along It eventually began to be clear that Calista was the person who God had set before me to pursue. We had been through so much together as friends, from frequent frustrations and annoyances early on, to developing a true, pure, loving, and edifying friendship that was rooted in us being brother and sister in Christ, to eventually realizing that the foundation that God had built with our friendship was one that was meant for more. In the weeks leading up to when I asked Calista out I was talking about it with people and very nonchalantly would mention how I was going to marry her, to which I was met with much skepticism as we hadn’t even started dating, but I had full confidence.

Finally, on Calista’s birthday I had decided to ask her out, I had planned out our morning together which was a dead giveaway to what was coming. We ended up spending the morning reading, and then went to a park and walked around while enjoying our final moments as just friends. Finally, we sat down on a bench and at last we talked everything out that had led to this and it was one of the best days ever, only to be quickly topped 6 days later. While we enjoyed our 6 days of dating there was no doubt in either of our minds that we were meant to spend our entire lives together so after a long conversation on my balcony overlooking Clifton our conversation led us to the topic of marriage where we were both in agreement and already knew it was meant to be.

To some this may be shocking as I did not officially propose until about 2 months later, so now you know! Some of the best and most exciting parts of this process was getting to tell our close friends and family that the person we just started dating 6 days ago was now going to be our future spouse. With our close friends there was no surprise whatsoever as they had seen our friendship from day one and knew it was only a matter of time before the both of us realized. With that being said, this is what has brought us to where we are today loving every second of our engagement and so excited for a lifetime of marriage together.

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