In September of 2022, I was invited by my friend Stephanie Faust in my women's bible study to come join her at a new church that she had been attending called REVO. She mentioned that the pastor's name was Matthew Cothran, and I recognized the last name. After some research, I found that I had danced on my high school dance team with Matthew's sister, Christen. I attended my first REVO church service with Stephanie and was able to meet Matthew there. I was immediately attracted to his "beautiful blue eyes" as I like to say, and I was extremely eager to get to know him.

Eventually I met up with Christen and told her I was interested in Matthew. After a long time praying, Matthew FINALLY texted me asking if I wanted to come help decorate the church for Christmas. I was overjoyed to help and during that time we actually had a moment to talk for a bit. After Christmas, Matthew messaged me that we needed to take down the Christmas decorations. I showed up and expected a group of people helping, but it ended up just being me and him there. So I cluelessly helped him take down decorations for an hour and figured that no one else was coming so it was time to leave. Finally before I left, Matthew asked me out on a date and I went home screaming with excitement!

We had plans to go on our first date on Monday, January 2nd, 2023, but we were too excited and ended up going on a shopping trip the Friday before. We have debates as to whether or not that was our first official date. On that Monday we ate dinner at 600 Degrees restaurant in Winston-Salem, and finished the night with Cheesecakes by Alex.

We had plans to go to the beach for the week of Fourth of July, so I was extremely hopeful a proposal would happen then. Matthew asked me on the Thursday before we left if I would like to have dinner with him at Jolo Winery. I knew that it was a nicer restaurant so I had my suspicions that it could happen, but Matthew kept it casual so I wouldn't suspect anything. So we went off to Jolo and had a wonderful meal. Then Matthew said that we should walk around outside after we ate, so I started to think that maybe he would actually propose. We wandered around in the heat and humidity, and I was walking VERY slowly to give him any opportunity to do it wherever he wanted. Eventually, I gave up because nothing happened. Matthew had mentioned that his parents had some cheesecake at their house so he wanted to stop by their place real quick. Before going there, he drove me around Pilot Knob Park Golf Course, and I began to be even more confused thinking, "Is he going to propose HERE with all of these people around?" Again, nothing happened, so we left to go to his parents house. I was extremely disappointed and gave up on any possibility of a proposal at that point. When we arrived at his house, I noticed some new lights put up in the back by the pool and commented that those were nice. Matthew could tell I had no clue what was happening so he suggested we go look at the lights casually. As we began walking down to the pool, I accidentally kicked over a fake candle and then I realized the pool was decorated with flowers, candles, and lights everywhere. It was absolutely so beautiful. Matthew took me down and told me about Proverbs 18:22 "He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord". He got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife. I blacked out, but according to him I was so shocked and excited that I was saying YES before he could even ask the question! Our families surprised us with cheesecake afterwards and it was an absolute dream come true.