Our story could be easily summed up as this: many, many good and faithful people have prayed with and for us over several years and God, in His perfect timing, brought us together now indefinitely to further His kingdom. But, if you must know the details, read on....

The setting is a youth conference in Steubenville, Ohio. It's 7am and I'm walking to the gift shop. My friend, Mackenzie, is reminding me I've already bought a t-shirt, sweatpants, and a baseball cap. She asks what I could possibly need in addition to what I've already bought. I mumble something about needing bottled water because the water provided tastes weird. She retorts back, "you're making that up! You know Ben is going to be there buying another Mountain Dew." She wasn't wrong, whether I admitted it or not, but Ben also was sure to show up predictably and the three of us spent that entire weekend completely inseparable. We enjoyed days hearing about the Lord and evenings becoming fast friends. We both truly attribute this conference to providing a solid foundation to our love story.

Over the next few years, we enjoyed each other's company and spent several afternoons at Chipotle in Chantilly. Our friendship grew over our shared love of Jesus, scary movies, and sarcasm.

After years apart, I was at a dinner with some friends, one of them being my close friend Danielle, who happens to be Ben's sister. I asked how Ben was doing and she shared that he was recently single and potentially in need of rekindling of community. I texted him before leaving the restaurant that night. He responded in approximately 30 seconds and we met for a drink the next night.

From that point on, we spent 3 years getting together every 5-9 months, catching up on life, sharing big life events, and lots of laughs.

In August of 2023, I texted Ben and asked him if he wanted to catch up before the school year craziness got started. We met about a week later for lunch. I remember leaving that lunch and immediately calling another friend. “I just had lunch with Ben. Don’t ask me to explain it, but something was just different about it.” 5 months (and many “unofficial” football watching dates) later we made our relationship official. 1 month after that he went to Connecticut with me and told my parents he was going to marry me. 2 months after that he purchased a house in the town just west of mine. And on August 4, 2024, he asked me to do life with him forever. All that to say a whole lot can happen in 12 months, some love stories are 13 years of God's writing, and I can now explain what was different about that lunch.

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