As we were each serving Christ and leading where we were called, God orchestrated our paths to cross while serving at Beloved and Beyond, a Christian camp for those with special needs. I was serving my 8th summer and Allison was newly hired as the Youth Coordinator at Grace Southwood. Allisons first duty was to take a group of volunteers to camp - Imagine that! Her term of camp was crazy town! Power outages, horrible rain storms, messed up activity rotations and short on volunteers! Being short on volunteers allowed for Allison to be swapped to serve a boy buddy who, you guessed it, is a camp legend and a long time friend of mine! This seemingly random swap allowed for us to cross paths that week because of our now mutual friend ;) We talked a few times but neither of us were in pursuit of one another at this point. The week ended and camp moved to the next term! But there were some schemers in the mix that we would soon come to find out about!

As I mentioned, there was some hidden scheming going on after Allison and I went our separate ways. A mother and daughter duo, the daughter being on staff with me and the mother being a friend and coworker to Allison, started planting some seeds that eventually lead to cross our paths a few more times. After their plotting, I may have struck up that I was looking for a new church in College Station and asked Allison if I could attend with her. (No I didn’t start going to church for a girl, but I did try this church to see this girl ;) After our first coffee date where we played chess and talked for over 3 hours it was instant connection. Our conversations revealed that we had countless mutual friends and had probably been at the same events as each other throughout college but just never met. It is all God's wonderful timing though! After that, every weekend I would have 24 hours off from camp and I would drive to town to spend a Saturday date night and Sunday morning church with Allison. She also happened to have friends or coworkers that needed to come visit camp for the first time or found other ways to serve or visit camp and just so happen to spend some more quality time with me while doing it!

As summer was coming to an end and the next season began, there was a realization that needed to be made. I was offered an Assistant Director position at a camp that was 5 hours away. We both prayed about what our next steps would be and I decided to take the job and move away. The day before I left on this new journey, I asked Allison to be my girlfriend. She said yes, committing to navigate all of the unknown challenges of long distance together! From then we would take turns driving to visit each other a couple times a month. Over the next 6 months, we shared thousands of miles traveled between the both of us before I was lead back to College Station.

That’s right! In February of 2024, I was offered a job as a Wildlife Biologist in College Station and I was able to move back and be closer to Allison, my family, and join my church community. Switching from long distance to living in the same town was interesting! Finding new rhythms and no longer having to communicate over the phone was great. Finally living in the same city for the first time allowed us to go to a community group with each other and build friendships with each other as a couple! We have been able to do so many more things hand in hand while also empowering each other to be our best selves in pursuit of the Lord.

What!!! In the words of Beyoncé, I put a ring on it! During the previous wedding season, getting to celebrate the many unions of our friends, we began to talk more and more about marriage and the steps we should take before then. So, Fall of 2024 we started Merge! A week before we completed the study I asked Allison to marry me and it was wonderful! I had a few of our friends setup our surprise picnic dinner. This is where I told Allison all of the things I meant when I said I love her and what love means to me through scripture! I know you’re on the edge of your seat… Did she say yes? I got an “Of course!” We both couldn’t believe we made it to this point but we were both ecstatic for what was next for the both of us! We then went to our surprise party and celebrated with our closest, most cherished people!