Jacob

The short story is that Melody and I met on a dating website. But that's not unusual nowadays. The version of the story I love to tell is far more interesting.

Melody and I matched a few days before the end of 2022. Which is interesting for me because I was all but done with the online dating scene. And, had I not matched with her, I would have given up on online dating all together. But there was something noticeably different about her, even through just our text conversations. The two of us had a lot of commonality, which made those initial "getting to know you" texts very natural and fun.

Now I need to give additional background for context because this is where the story gets good. I have this friend David, whom I've known and been close to for many years now. Towards the second half of 2022, David reconnected with and started dating Alisha, a girl he knew from high school. I knew of Alisha, but I had never met her and I didn't know much about her.

The day before New Year's Eve (after Melody and I had been texting for a couple days), Melody made a comment about one of my profile pictures, one with David and I together. She told me that she knew David from high school. What were the odds of that? I knew I was going to see David at a New Year's Eve Party and I was excited to ask David about her, knowing David to be an excellent judge of character. But as excited as I was to ask him about her, I decided to try and play it cool by waiting for a good moment to bring her up. Of course that was towards the end of the night.

I remember the conversation going something like this:

"Hey, I'm talking to someone you went to high school with.....can I get your opinion on her?"

David's response was "Woah! My high school was very small. Who is it?"

I said, "Her name is Melody."

David paused. " You mean Alisha's twin sister???" Needless to say, we both needed a moment after that to collect our thoughts.

We went on our first day in January. And I am absolutely thrilled to say it was the last time I had to go on a first date. Our relationship hasn't always been perfect. But it's always been the best. That because she's not just the love of my life, she's also my best friend.

Melody

Back in July of 2022, my twin sister and I went out with friends of ours from high school. As we were talking, we started discussing dating and frustrations that we had. One friend asked if either my sister or I would be interested in being set up with someone. She proceeded to tell me about a friend that they had and showed me a picture of Jake.

We were never set up, but because I knew of Jake and had seen his picture, I recognized him when his profile came up on the dating app in December. As we started talking, I quickly realized that although I knew of him, he didn't know about me. I decided to mention that I had gone to high school with his friend and that's when Jake started connecting the dots.

We went out on our first date in January and I remember being so nervous that I asked him if we could meet up early. We hit it off really well and before we knew it, we had been talking for hours.

As we continued to see each other and I got to know him more, I saw more of his love for God, his love for his family and friends, and his care for others. The more time that we spent together, the more I fell in love with him, which made me realize that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him, and before I knew it, we were engaged.