If you ask Kenan:

God is good…all the time, and all the time….God is good. This is a saying that I try to take to heart day after day, and there are times that I struggle to acknowledge His presence in my life, but with Jess in my life, I am reminded of his blessings everyday. For the longest time, I was not sure I would ever find someone who would love me for me, or even if I was even good enough for anyone. Was never sure if I would find someone who would share similar interests, or even if there was someone who I could introduce to potentially similar interests. I had always felt like the Lord was leading me to a life of singleness, and I was struggling with being content with that, but that was before the Lord brought Jess into my life.

Not long before I moved to South Carolina to pursue a career there, I started talking to Jessica about our shared interests in medieval weapons and Renaissance fairs. My best friend, Brett, and his wife Sarah, had already expressed to me that there was a Renaissance faire in North Carolina that they enjoyed the last time they had gone, so I mentioned it in passing to Jessica as a potential thing for us to do together as friends because I felt a desire to maintain our friendship.

After I left, we continued to chat via GroupMe because I had not mustered up the courage to ask for her number yet. I ended up finally bringing up the Faire again, and she seemed super interested in going, so we made plans to meet up and spend some time. Before the Faire, I not so subtly mentioned that it would be good for us to have each other’s numbers since up to this point, we had just been using GroupMe and I “thought” it would be a good idea for us to have a way to reach each other if internet service was spotty, so finally I had her number. (I am as subtle as a train wreck as my sister would put it.)

The morning of the Faire, we got to forge some of our own knife blades at the dragon forge experience, and sparks flew in more ways than one. After parting ways that evening, I had my suspicions that there was more there than just a really good friendship, but I was a bit slow on the uptake, so nothing really progressed past the texting stage until around Christmas, when I finally mustered up the courage to ask her dad for his blessing on our dating relationship. I was honored when he said yes, and even more honored about a week later when I clumsily asked Jessica if she was willing to proceed to the next step of our relationship and officially date.

Since then, I have been tremendously blessed to see the passion and drive of the amazing woman that Jessica is. We have been through ups and downs and spent a lot of good time in scripture and in prayer about our future together, so when September 2023 rolled around, I knew it was time to buy a ring and ask once again for her parents' blessing. I will take no credit for picking out the ring, Jessica gave me multiple choices of styles to choose from, and then we ended up choosing the diamond together, even if at the time she didn’t realize it.

It took a little bit after that, as we had life and sickness on my side preventing us from spending as much time together and I lost my voice for a season, but the minute I regained my voice and was through the sickness, I suggested that we have a nice date night and dress up. I popped the question, and was further honored by her yes.

Now, just like always, we are working on planning this wedding together, just like we have done so much together, and just trusting in the Lord and what he has in store for our future.The Lord has blessed me with someone who loves me for me, and I am reminded every day that I am not good enough for this amazing woman, but now, I use it as motivation to be a better man for her and not as a lack of self-worth. We look forward to celebrating this momentous day with those we know and love and with those that will hold us accountable through it all.

Registry