On October 6th, 2024, Eli and I were both visiting Nations Church in Athens. He was with his mom and stepdad, who were regulars at that church, and I was with a friend who wanted me to tag along, as she was trying that church out for the first time.

Before service, my friend and I went to the coffee station to grab coffee and donuts. We grabbed what we wanted and walked into the chapel, I nearly ran into Eli while he was waiting for his mom, not knowing who he was then. My friend and I sat down with the other college students as Eli went to the front row to sit with his family. I kept thinking to myself how handsome he was and pointed to my friend, saying, "That's the dude from the lobby!" None of the other regularly attending students knew who he was. We ended up walking out the doors at the same time, he held the door for me as we exited. I had BUTTERFLIES! But neither of us said anything and went about our merry ways. I never thought I would see him again.

The next Sunday morning, October 13th, 2024, my friend asked over the phone if I would like to go with her again that week. I was pretty tired, and that type of church was not necessarily my style, so I almost did not go. The Lord would not let me go back to sleep, He told me to "get up and go". And that I did. 15 minutes before the service started, I threw on my clothes and ran out the door, somehow making it in right as service started.

HE WAS SITTING IN THE SAME ROW AS ME!! One section over and still with his mom, but I was thrilled. We took turns glancing at each other as the preacher preached the message that day. The whole time, I kept telling my friend that I was going to muster up the courage to say something to him after the service was over. All of a sudden, his mom left. I figured she would come back, but she never did (turns out she had an appointment).

When the time came for service to end, I tried to time it perfectly so he could hold the door for me again, and I could say something. And it worked out as such! He held the door, and I blurted out, "Are you single?". The butterflies were going crazy. He responded with, "Yeah, are you?". "Yes..." I replied. (Like ummm... I would hope so?) That's when he said, "Good! Because you're gorgeous."

Tons of awkward small-talk later, I finally got him to write my number down... but in the notes app. I didn't receive a text from him for three hours, I was worried he wasn't interested or that I had written the wrong number down! Once he finally texted, I FREAKED out! We made conversation about where we were from and the things we liked. I asked him what he liked to do in his free time. "Bowl," he said...

BOWL? Who likes to bowl??? (Later down the road, I found out that he only said that because he didn't know what else to say since he didn't have much free time). Even though I thought it was odd, I told him that we should go bowling that night (for context, this is still the same day we met). He said sure and said he'd pick me up.

We went bowling and broke the ice a little bit. I surprisingly didn't lose by much. Kohen, my youngest brother, turned 14 that day, so my parents FaceTimed me in the middle of our bowling date for me to help sing him "Happy Birthday" and watch him blow out his candles. Eli then asked if I wanted to go to dinner after, and I volunteered Texas Roadhouse. We hit it off and have since then been inseparable.

We started dating on November 3rd, 2024.

Six months later, we got engaged! :)