I never imagined that I would be single at 26 when all of my friends were married and starting their own families. Praying for a relationship became harder and harder when the years went by without the result that I wanted and the realization that though I wanted one, a relationship was never promised to me. I bought my own house and I was living life on my own when I started to feel like it would be a good time to get back to online dating. I signed up for Upward and started swiping through people until I found Jacob. He was cute, but his profile was super short which normally meant that they weren’t taking it very seriously. I swiped left and didn’t think too much more about his profile. The next day, I went through the people that had liked my profile and there he was again. He was cute and he was close by, so I swiped right and gave him a chance. He messaged me first and we talked every day for a month until we finally met in person at Starbucks. We went on our first date to Bridge Day and spent 12 hours together that day before he finally made his way back home. We started dating a week or so after that day and we’ve been together ever since. On September 16th, I got my dream proposal in front of the seals at the zoo and of course, I said yes. When I look back on our relationship, I see all of the times that we should have passed right by each other. I should have never gotten a second chance with his profile. He may have never messaged me first. I could have not signed up for a dating profile to begin with. There are a million tiny details that God worked out for us to be together that could have so easily not happened. God has used Jacob to show me that I deserve to be loved and valued and put first, to teach me joy and patience even in tough times, to motivate me to be the best person that I can be. Jacob was an answered prayer and I will always be thankful to have him in my life.

I was looking for a church going girl for the last several years and I didn't have much luck with that. Times were getting hard for me with my mom and grandma getting sick in early 2022. I decided to get on the dating app, Upward, in the summer of 2022. Times were still very hard for me taking care of my mom and grandma for half of the year. I lost my mom on September 2nd and my grandma on September 14th. I always talked to my grandma about starting me a family and how I would find someone. The day before my grandma passed I told her I'm going to find me a good, church going girl. She squeezed my hand every time I said that. And on September 17, 2022, my life changed forever. That was the day I first started talking to Rachel. Oddly enough, September 16, 2022, Rachel swiped left on my profile and rejected me. As time went on towards our 1-year anniversary of us knowing each other, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. I was going to ask her to marry me. I decided to propose on September 16th because I considered it the day of no's, so I was hoping this would change the outcomes of that day. We went to the Louisville Zoo because Rachel loves seals. I had the ring in my pocket the whole day and at the end of the day, I proposed right in front of the seals and turned September 16th into the day of yes's.