Francois Mauriac once wrote “To love someone is to see a miracle invisible to others.” Truthfully, the opportunity to love Savannah has been a greater blessing to me than any miracle I could’ve ever asked for. Growing up, I always wanted to be apart of a timeless love story, as we all do. I wanted to be able to tell my children about how I looked across the room my freshman year of high school, locked eyes with the prettiest girl in school, and heard the audible voice of the Lord tell me she was the one. Absolutely ridiculous. Thankfully, and for more reasons than one (mostly because Savannah didn’t attend my high school), the Lord had other plans. He had a miracle ready and waiting, visible only to myself and Savannah.

Our story began before we were born, long before we ever fathomed the existence of one another. Years before our names were even thought of, God began laying our family’s foundation amongst our parents. My mom was a youth leader at Trinity Church at the time, and Savannah’s mom was one of her students. For years they worshipped together, cried together, and became family to one another. Before that, Savannah’s grand parents on her father’s side, Gerald and Shannon, loved my mom dearly through her single years prior to meeting my dad, who at the time spent many a pheasant hunt with Savannah’s other grand father, Jim. Unfortunately, a year after Savannah was born, her family moved out of state, rendering us oblivious to each other’s existence until she returned in 2004 and moved into where else but my very own neighborhood, two streets over.

Years passed, and I was a sophomore in high school when I got invited to a movie night at Savannah’s house via a mutual friend of ours. Now, being the son of a police officer, my dad wasn’t too keen on allowing me to going over to anyone’s house whom he hadn’t met, background checked, and called the FBI about, let alone some high school girl’s house. Lucky enough for me however, God as my wingman had already solved that problem 20 years prior, and after my momma reminding my dad who the Richie’s were, I was in my car heading down the street to watch a movie with my future bride. Unbeknownst to me, however, there would still be many years we both needed to live until God’s miracle revealed itself.

As many high school friendships and relationships do, our contact via mutual friends slowly began to drift apart, though we continued to catch glimpses of one another from time to time. Through social media, we followed each other, contactless still, but waiting our time. On our first date, Savannah admitted to me that (and she’ll probably kill me for saying this but) she often times found herself wanting to message me and reach out. Thankfully, because I definitely still had plenty of growing to do, her best friend and matron of honor would talk her out of it due to the distance (she lived in Denton at the time) and the years continued to go by. From my side of things, I would see her at Rangers games when she was a six shooter and just think, man I’d give anything to marry a girl like that, but this girl is way out of my league. Still, God knew. He knew I needed to mature. He knew I needed to find myself. He knew I needed to walk in my calling as a police officer. He knew Savannah needed to grow. She needed to learn how truly strong He had made her to be. He knew that she needed to find her strength to take on whatever challenge he put in front of her. And most importantly, He knew we both needed sweet Harrison.

By 2019, I was ready to actually meet this girl I had thought I’d known since high school. In February of that year, I began asking another of our mutual friends, our fantastic photographer and one of Savannah’s bridesmaids, to set us up. For most of that year, I continued to ask, beg, and plead until finally, in December, she relented and brought my name up to Savannah while they were on their monthly coffee date. God moved that day, and for some reason, she told Olivia to give me her number and the rest is history.

Y’all. I kid you not when I tell you I struggled for hours with what to text her. I was actually on a ski trip with my dad that weekend and the lack of oxygen in Breckenridge definitely didn’t help. That being said, a few days later I pulled into her driveway to pick her up for our first date- the last first date she and I would ever have- and when she walked out of the house, I looked across the concrete driveway, locked eyes with the prettiest blonde girl I’d ever seen, and I knew she was going to be the one. We went to Chili’s (I DEFINITELY felt God in the Chili’s that night) and Prairie Lights that night, and I talked the entire time. I just couldn’t shut up. I hadn’t talked to this girl in almost a decade and yet I instantly felt connected to her. When the date was over, after two hours of driving her home and taking way too many “wrong turns” and “long ways”, I dropped her off and spent the rest of the night wishing for forever with her. She told me months later that she walked inside thinking I would never call her again because of the awkward hug she gave me (there’s a ring video of it somewhere, though she’ll never show anyone), and because she thought she was way too shy on the date. Meanwhile, I was calling Griff and Fischer and telling them about wedding rings.

Honestly there’s so much more I could say. I could tell you about how our first kiss was at midnight, how the first time I met Harrison, he said “dad?” at the front door after it shut behind me, or how the whole world seemed to stop they day we were slow dancing together when I helped her clean her dance studio and I knew I loved her for the first time. But if you’ve made it this far into our love story, I’d hate to burn you out before we all even get to the wedding. Though I can’t say that she’s my high school sweet heart (even though I did technically go to her senior prom with her), I can say without a shadow of a doubt I wouldn’t change a thing about the story God wrote for her and I. My favorite thing about miracles is that though the one receiving the miracle is the only one that actually feels it, those who witness the miracle can be just as impacted by it. If you’re reading this, know that the greatest joy of mine and Savannah’s story has been getting to share it with those whom we love and who love us. Our wedding day is just as much your day as it is ours, and we cannot wait to celebrate it with every single one of y’all.

To my bride-to-be, I’m so thankful that it’s always been you.