Some of you may not know how Cade and I met. It is my favorite story to tell so I've decided to share it with y'all! P.S. It's not a short one!

January of 2024, I had been going through a really rough time in my life. My best friend, Karissa, decided she was taking me to Ohio to catch my breath for a second. The night leading up to our flight I was at another friend's house where her cat had peed in my bag packed for the weekend in Ohio. Once I rewashed everything and was heading back to Auburn, my tire blew!! I was on backroads at midnight changing my tire feeling like I was not meant to get on a plane the next morning in fear that ONE more thing would go wrong (an airplane was not where I wanted to be for that last thing to go wrong, because ya know, it comes in threes!).

I made it back to my apartment in Auburn and had settled my mind and was ready to go to Ohio! That morning, there were tornadoes in the south. Worried about that, I didn't even think about how the weather in the North Pole (Ohio) would be. We get on the plane ready for our hour and a half flight. The flight turned into four and a half hours!!! Apparently there was a blizzard in the North Pole! Our intended destination was in Detroit. The runway there was iced over so we could not land, though we had a scary attempt. We then rerouted to Pittsburg to try to land but by the time we got there, it had iced over as well after another no good attempt, we rerouted one more time! We then were on our way to Columbus, Ohio where it got real, real fast! in another attempt to land, we smacked the runway so hard that there was damage to the nose of the plane! Still, we could not safely land so we took back off. At this point in the flight I'm thinking were dead. I sent my family an "I love you text" and prepared for the worst! after circling a few more times, The captain comes over the speaker to tell us that we have to land this go round because we are almost out of fuel! We finally land! They tell us to keep our seats and that we were heading back to Detroit but Karissa and I got off VERY quickly!

Luke, Karissa's fiance, was waiting in Detroit for us which is about 6 hours from Columbus where we now were. Karissa's cousin Kyle who had just made it to Defiance from Columbus turned back around to come get us! Our 48 hour trip has about 32 hours left at this point. We made it back to Defiance!

It is now Karissa's cousin Jack's 21st part bus time. This party was nothing but guys let me tell ya. Just about every one of them was trying to talk to me and the ONE guy that didn't ended up being my future husband.

We get back from the party bus and there were a couple of us in the hot tub. Cade had left to go home at this point but oddly enough he came back to play cards with the guys. If you know Cade, you know it was odd he even went on the party bus and much odder that he came back after working all day!

Later on, he found a pair of swim trunks and got in the hot tub with a furry Russian hat on?? I did not know his name and honestly didn't plan on it! This stranger in the hot tub talked to me veryyyy little but his feet kept floating over and touching mine. Boy, do I HATE feet. I asked him if he was trying to play footsies with me and he looked offended that I would ask such a crazy thing, as if he didn't even know his feet were touching mine. His feet drifted over again and then I just put mine all over his and he thought it was funny. We had a little more small talk within the group where I learned he had just come home from the Airforce. I then told him I didn't like military guys because they always seem to be the stereotypical military guy.

We get out of the hot tub and I was repacking my things and when I went into the room where I was sleeping- Cade was on my mattress. So I sat on the floor and chatted with him while I packed. Cade got to know more about me than a lot of people do in years. I apparently needed a therapist but I got Cade instead. I talked to him like I would never see him again. He didn't know my name and I didn't know his. I thought he was just hanging around because he didn't want to go back to his Mama's house. At one point in our conversation he said "I like you a lot" and I laughed. I thought it was a joke. No way you like someone who is spilling their guts the way I was. It went right over my head and I just kept talking. He still didn't say much. We talked until it was time for me to leave to get on my flight home. When I came out of the bathroom, he had fallen asleep, and I didn't think much of it. As soon as I got on the plane, I was sick to my stomach. It had hit me like a train that that conversation was anything but a normal conversation. That conversation was attached to a connection and feeling that I had never in my life experienced. THAT conversation was the first conversation I'd have with the person I was going to marry.

Don't forget- I didn't know his name. Karissa had finally remembered his name on our flight. I began to search for Kade's all over social media. I never found him well, because he spells it with a C. I remembered that him and Karissa's cousin, Kyle were friends and I finally found him. I was nervous to friend request him because I was confused on whether he had just experienced the same thing I did or if I had made it all up in my head. I friend requested him anyways and decided that that would be ALL that I would do because he never really flirted with me or anything. So I decided I would follow him but the ball would be in his court for the rest of it.

We make it back to Auburn around 5 PM and Karissa and I are getting ready to go to sleep and he still hadn't accepted my follow request. I stopped waiting and got in the bed to go to sleep since I hadn't slept much in the last 48 hours. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I got a message from none other than Cade Grube that said "Stalker?" This was NOT the message I was expecting. Cade isn't a big jokester. This was the biggest joke/ sarcastic comment he had made since I met him. He can be kinda dry, so I wasn't sure if it was a joke, but I responded anyways. In Cade fashion, he still never made a move so I took the ball back out of his court and asked if he wanted to just talk on Instagram for the rest of our lives or if he would like my phone number.

Two weeks later I was back in Ohio and positive that I had found my soulmate and best friend.

Our story can't be chalked up to anything but a God thing. I was placed exactly where I was supposed to be in His divine timing. I guess God also decided to give me a really rocky 2 months before I met him and a near plane crash because He knew as soon as I'd meet who I was on my way to meet I wouldn't have any more bad or lonely days. Cade and I's relationship is something so special and I pray that everyone gets to experience something like it. We earned our nickname "lovebirds" honestly. We are so aware that what we have and continue to nurture is so sacred and we can't wait to celebrate our love with y'all!

I told you there was nothing short about it!!!!