"I have found the one whom my soul loves."

- Solomon 3:4

Little did we know, our story began at an engineering firm back in the 80’s! Just kidding, kind of! Anways, both of our dad's are retired engineers and met nearly forty years ago at the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), where they developed a lifelong friendship. Every Tuesday they ate lunch at the Gateway Café and before they knew it, my dad was a groomsman in Andrew’s dad’s wedding and our parents became very close friends! Several years later, Andrew was born in 2002 and I was born in 2003. We grew up going to each other’s birthday parties and our families would occasionally get together and celebrate the holidays. As Andrew and I got older, we developed our own interests and formed new friend groups, so we didn’t really hangout with each other throughout our childhood. Fast forward about fifteen years later and we both ended up going to school at Liberty University! Our dad's talked over the phone the summer before we headed to Lynchburg and caught up on life. After this phone call, they encouraged the both of us to reach out to one another so we would have a mutual contact on campus, but neither one of us did that because we thought it would be so awkward haha!

Before we knew it, Thanksgiving break rolled around and it was almost time to go home. My parents had driven up to Lynchburg to get me, so I was visiting with them and working on some homework before heading back to my dorm room. While I was hanging out with my family, Andrew's dad called my dad and asked him if there was any chance that they were in the Lynchburg area because Andrew's car battery had died. My dad told him that they were in town and that he'd be more than happy to help Andrew so that his family wouldn't have to drive three hours in the dark. Dad got Andrew's number and met up with him on campus. They removed his car battery and took it to a local Auto Parts store to see if they could charge it. One of the employees said that it was going to take around an hour for the battery to charge so my Dad invited Andrew to have dinner with us that night. He called my Mom and told her that he and Andrew were going to pick up a pizza and bring it back with them and eat with us. Let me tell you, I was NOT happy at all! My hair was up in a messy bun, I had on sweats, and I was in the middle of writing a paper for one of my classes. I remember complaining to my Mom about how I didn't have time to have dinner with Andrew because I had so much school work to finish. Mom laughed and said, "Well I'm sorry, but he's coming whether you want him to or not." So, I put on some jewelry, sprayed some perfume, and started setting the table!

I was facing the countertop when Andrew and my dad walked in the front door and when I turned around, we both experienced that "love at first sight" look. I kid you not, I just had this overwhelming sense of peace come over my body. It was so wild! I hadn't talked to Andrew yet, but something told me that he was the one. So, whenever people ask me if I believe in "love at first sight," I can confidently say YES. My parents hardly got two words in at dinner that night because Andrew and I could not stop talking to one another. Come to find out, we had one of the same classes together and didn't even know it! Once he left, we followed each other on social media and I reached out to him and thanked him for buying our pizza!

We both went home for Thanksgiving break and had been texting back and forth. Somehow in conversation, Andrew found out that my favorite holiday dessert was pecan pie! A couple of days later, Andrew and his dad showed up at my house with a homemade pie! I was so surprised and thought it was the sweetest gesture. There's a funny part to that story though! You see, Andrew's dad didn't know that he liked me so, Andrew told his dad that the pecan pie was for my dad as a "thank you" for helping him with his car. In reality, the pie was for me all along! Before he left my house that night, we planned on going to the library to study when we got back to school. The Monday after break, we went to the library, but we hardly did any studying haha! We talked for hours, grabbed dinner at a local Italian place, got milkshakes at Chick-fil-a, and then jammed out to One Direction in his car. IT WAS SO FUN! I was so ready to date Andrew! We saw each other a few times that week and then ended up going to a "Midnight Mayhem" hockey game at Liberty on that Friday. We hadn't really talked about dating one another, but it was so obvious that we both wanted to. The whole game, Andrew and I could not stop laughing. It was 3:00 a.m. when the game ended, so Andrew walked me back to my dorm. On the way back, Andrew and I talked about the past couple of weeks and then he asked me to be his girlfriend! We were so excited.

The rest is pretty much history! It has been so amazing to see God's provision in our lives over the past couple of years. From the moment we met, His faithfulness has been incredibly evident. He allowed Andrew to literally walk into my life when I least expected it and that was truly the biggest blessing. It has been really cool to watch our families reconnect and make countless memories! He is beyond gracious and I couldn't be more excited to begin our life together as one.