Let me tell you the story about the surprise everyone knew about. The story of Hannah and I.

Hannah and I first met in Birmingham when I started my pastoral internship at her church. She had just finished her master’s program and was getting adjusted to her new job at UAB. I had just moved to Birmingham. We first met through church, and we’d see each other every Sunday. She would sit with her family in the 3rd pew and we would say hi to each other after the end of each service. I worked with her mom, Leigh, in the church office. Over the first few months, Leigh would invite me over for Sunday dinners, and lo and behold, Hannah would be there too! We really enjoyed getting the chance to spend more time together.

Our birthdays coincide with Mardi Gras, and on Fat Tuesday Hannah and I were both at the same Crawfish boil, even though we didn’t know the other was there. Hannah had a spot with a group of her friends, and I was waiting in line to get food. After news made it down the line that they were out of crawfish, I left because what’s the point of a crawfish boil when there’s no crawfish? It’s just a boil and that’s no fun. As I was leaving, Hannah chased me down, and from that point on we spent more and more time together. At Easter dinner, Hannah invited me to join her for other fun activities throughout the next week, Hot Yoga (which I am still convinced is a plot from her to turn me into soup), Bingo, and another Crawfish Boil. So, through the rest of the internship, we would see each other for Bingo every Wednesday night. It was never the same when one of us wasn’t there.

As my internship came to a close, we were spending time together nearly every day, and people could tell something was up. They could see how special and close of a friendship we had with each other. Saying goodbye to each other that night before I moved back up to St. Louis was so hard for us.

We wouldn’t be apart from each other for too long. Before I moved back to school for class, I asked if I could come down to see her for a date. This is the first surprise that everyone knew about. Of course I would ask her on a date, everyone already thought we were dating. As Leigh phrased it, we were the last two people to figure it out. And one date turned into three dates, which turned into 8 months of dates. We took so many trips between St. Louis and Birmingham to see each other. We’ve loved exploring and finding yummy food in every city we’ve been in, hearing live music wherever we can find it, going to the symphony and ballet together, and of course watching Auburn sports together (I am learning so much about the Auburn family). We got to spend Thanksgiving with her family and Christmas with my family. Hannah got to see snow for the first time in St. Louis and it truly blew her mind.

We both knew something was really special about this relationship we were creating together, and in April it was time for the second surprise everyone knew about. In late April I drove down to Birmingham for a gala with Hannah (this is the cover story). The secret reason I was in town was to propose to her. And I’m not sure how much of a surprise it really was for her. She had a good hunch about it. I tried so so hard to not give away every single proposal thought, but Hannah’s pretty smart, she knew something was up. We were already going to get dinner on Friday to celebrate my pastoral placement, but I asked her if we could go for a walk before dinner all dressed up (it was also somewhere where we had never walked together before; I am so slick at this). So, before dinner, we went to Vulcan Park for a walk around near sunset. When we got to the park, Hannah noticed that a gate from Vulcan down to the trail was closed. I convinced her it was fine (and it really was) so we kept walking, but we only made it a few more yards before we turned back for the car. Hannah’s roommate, Nat, was hiding behind the security guard waiting to take pictures of the proposal. It was at this moment that I told Hannah the jig was up, and that’s a direct quote from me. This was no surprise little walk before dinner. I proposed to Hannah after the shortest walk ever and I don’t think we would want it any other way. So did Hannah and I got on much of a walk? Not even a little bit. Did we get engaged and have such a yummy dinner? Absolutely.

Now, Hannah and I are only 90 minutes away from each other, so we’re able to see each other so much more often than we did when I lived in St. Louis. We’re so so excited to be in the same state and we’re absolutely thrilled to celebrate our life together with every one of you. And that’s not a surprise at all.

-Andrew