Lonnie and I met in November of 2014 during our senior year in high school at First Reformed Church in Willmar, Minnesota. My friend Emily (the Maid of Honor) asked if I would be willing to play guitar one Sunday a month for a praise team she was starting up. There were definitely more equipped guitar players in our immediate friend group, but Em asked me. This is probably due to the fact that we had been best friends since 7th grade and couldn't really seem to live without each other, no matter how much my self-taught guitar skills were lacking.

When I got to the first day of practice, Emily was late as per usual (sorry Em ;P). And of course, she had the keys to get into the church. So I sat in my jeep...waiting. Pretty soon a gray pick-up truck parks next to my jeep. I thought to myself, "Oh, this must be that Lonnie person Emily said was going to be singing in the group too. I'll go say 'hi'." So I invited myself into his passenger seat.

After I said hi and sat down I looked over at him - he looked very confused as to why I was interrupting his lunch with half a sandwich in his hands and the other half in his mouth. Since he was clearly preoccupied, I just took over the conversation. Pretty soon he was ignoring his sandwich and we talked about nothing and everything until Emily finally arrived with wet hair and a "Sorry sorry sorry!"

As time went on, it was pretty obvious that Lonnie was interested. I remember thinking to myself, you know, if he asked me out I'd probably say yes. He seems like a sweet guy - why not? So I started dropping hints and giving him opportunities to ask for my phone number. At one point I think my phone was in my hand close to 15 minutes during a conversation - he just stared at it the whole time. I could tell he wanted to ask for it, he just couldn't get himself to say the words.

After knowing Lonnie for close to six months, I get a text from an unknown number. It said, "Heeyyy." I did not even have to ask who it was - I knew it was Lonnie. I remember thinking, "Finally!"

We started talking and pretty soon I found myself sitting at Culver's across the table from a guy who looked at me maybe five times throughout the whole date. He was so nervous he barely even spoke - he pretty much just laughed at everything I said between darting attempts at eye contact.

Despite the awkward first date, things took off and we decided to start dating two days before he went to Kansas with Fredrick Harvesting. I know...two days. Our parents thought we were crazy, which we were, but I had a feeling it would be worth it.

We dated long distance from day two of our relationship until I got home from my freshman year of college in May of 2016 - almost a full year after we had started dating. He called me every night despite the other men on the crew relentlessly calling him "lover boy." We talked for (literally) hours each phone call. Some people have joked that Lonnie and I had talked to each other more in that first year of our relationship than most couples talk their whole lives - which is probably true. We learned so much about each other that year - and not just "What's your favorite flavor of ice cream?" We got down to the deep stuff and realized we felt the same way about a lot of things. And while the long distance was pretty tough to get through, I wouldn't change it for anything - all 630 miles of it.

I believe that God put us together and that he has an amazing plan for us and I can't wait to see what's going to happen next.