I met Moises 3 years ago, coaching volleyball at the middle school. I didn’t think anything of it. He invited me to his church to play volleyball (I love volleyball!). We are very competitive, so we clicked. He stopped going because he coached other sports. I continued going. Our second year coaching together, my cousin, Paloma (Palome), coached with us (Her man is cousins with Moises, so they knew each other.) Also, I had just gotten hired to teach at the middle school where we coached. It was fun coaching together. I was very comfortable. Palome would buy food for us, Moises would buy food for us, so I would buy food for us. I didn’t know anyone at work, so I asked Moises a lot of questions my first year there. I’m not big on asking for help, however, I caught myself asking Moises for help often. We talked a lot about faith, fellowship, and food. I love food! I would make desserts, and I would take him some (I was saying thank you for helping me, duh 👀) I started looking forward to seeing him, and talking to him. Eventually, I stopped asking for help because I didn’t want him to think anything. During all of this, I would pray, and ask God, “When would I meet the one who was meant for me?” Moises kept popping up, and I would say “No!” I tried to push him away, and he always came around to help me (Giving me bathroom breaks 🤣). Some of our girls had joined club for volleyball, and we told them we’d go see a tournament. Around April, the last tournament was coming up on a Sunday. None of my family members wanted to go with me (my niece was in club too), so I asked Moises if he wanted to go. I had planned on going to church before the tournament, and Moises asked to carpool, so we spent a whole day together. Church, lunch, tournament, and dinner. I really enjoyed spending that day with him as friends. We continued to talk and text. My siblings met him, and I really enjoyed how well they connected with each other. He started to push in into my second period class every day to help students in math. I thought it was a little suspicious, but everyone would tell me he was a very helpful guy. I thought ‘he really enjoys helping these kids.’ I was grateful for the extra help! We talked and texted for a straight month. He invited me to be his plus one for a wedding. I didn’t want to go with him if he only saw me as a friend. I wasn’t sure if he liked me or he was just being friendly. I decided to ask him on a date. I prayed about it (because like I said I didn’t want us to happen 😅), talked to my best friend about it, and finally grew the courage to ask him to go out with me (or as he says “cornered him” in my classroom). He responded with a yes right away, and my heart was overjoyed! We went on our first date to hike God’s Thumb at Lincoln City, and then, to one more. He told me he would ask my parents for permission to be my boyfriend, and I knew he was the one. (This was one of my prayers, that my future husband would honor me and my parents, by speaking with them before we were official.) God has answered many of my prayers with Moises. I prayed he would love Jesus, have a servant’s heart, love working with kids, love playing sports or is competitive, wants kids, can cook, likes to eat, and have facial hair!! 🤭🥵💛 It has been so beautiful getting to know him, and his family! God has truly blessed me with such a wonderful man! I cannot wait for what the future holds for us! 💙💛

I met Ruby in late August/Early September of 2022 after being asked to coach middle school volleyball. We coached that season together and only really communicated as co-coaches. The following school year she had sent me a text or I had been told she would be joining the middle school staff as a 6th grade teacher, I thought to myself "That's cool, It will be easier to communicate during volleyball season." I really didn't think anything else about it, until we needed to hire an assistant coach, I immediately thought of Paloma (Palome as Ruby calls her) "Palome" is my cousin's fiancee and so happens to be Ruby's first cousin. The thought of having her as our assistant made sense because we both have a connection to her. During the 8 weeks volleyball takes place, the three of us got along really well, as Ruby has already stated we would rotate on who picked up food for our road games. One week would be then Paloma and then Ruby or whoever had the time to grab something for the three of us. During this time and after volleyball season ended, I found myself wanting to talk to Ruby much more, not necessarily because I liked her but mainly to get to know her and so she didn't feel like she didn't know anyone at work.

Winter-Spring 2024:

Outside of work hours, we still really didn't talk much. As the months passed by I found myself getting to know Ruby and her interests, I found out she was really involved with her Church, she loved to play sports (she is a coach after all), but she loves to hike (Not my favorite). She had invited me to a couple different hikes with some of her friends and her little brother, I didn't know how to tell her in that moment that I don't like hiking, but I checked my basketball schedule and it turned out we had a tournament so I was not able to go. In that moment, I wondered why I cared so much that she had invited me to an activity that I don't even like... weeks passed and I had been asked at work to push into a class or two during what was my office period, I knew Ruby had a class she had asked for help in before and other teachers who typically ask me for help said they didn't need help that period. This was the start of Ruby and I working closer together in a classroom setting. By this time I had started to have some feelings for Ruby, but I was in the mindset that I wasn't going to let myself fall for anyone that wasn't going to be "the one". I had been praying for a women who would draw me closer to Jesus, someone who would serve or is serving within her church community, someone athletic/liked sports, and most importantly someone who shared my love for food!!

During the spring time some of our volleyball girls had tried out and made the Woodburn club team and had been asking us to go watch. The final tournament was approaching and I had no plans for Sunday other than church in the morning so I reached out to Ruby and asked if she wanted to carpool because the tournament was in Salem. She said she wanted to go to church in the morning so I told her we could go before and I would meet her at her house if she wanted. That day turned into what I have referred to as "The Day", the day I knew I had feelings for Ruby and that it wasn't going to be easy to ignore them. We carpooled to People's Church for an 8am service, we walked in like normal and naturally I gravitated toward the front couple of rows and on my up there I noticed that the 8am service is 90% senior citizens. After a great sermon from the pastor, one we still mention to this day when we notice the same thing, we grabbed lunch at this little Vietnamese restaurant. For those that have known me for sometime, will know that naturally I finished my food in the first 5 mins of it arriving, while Ruby ate her pho at a normal pace. After lunch we made our way over to the tournament were we were able to support our students and enjoy watching volleyball. We then finished the day with dinner and dessert. After that day we continued talking and texting for about a month. All of this led up to the moment you're all probably waiting for, "who asked who out and what did you say?" RUBY asked me out on our first date, we had been discussing how groups were going to work for her math class and what she wanted me to help the students with during small group. After that conversation ended she cornered me in her classroom and said she wanted to take me out on a date. Before she could even finish the word date, I said yes. I tried to control my emotions but I can promise you that my answer was full of excitement. I planned the first date, and our second.

I had told her that before we could officially say we were dating I had to talk to her parents, so after our second date I went over to their house and talked to her dad, judging by the writing of this story I think it went well.

Getting to know Ruby and grow with her over the last year has been a true blessing, un Regalo De Dios. Who would have thought that one season of coaching together would turn into 3 seasons, and more importantly turning into forever with you? I love you Ruby