Like all good stories, this one starts in Africa…

Hunter: A week after getting a new job, I got told I was getting sent on a deployment to Africa. I handled it well (I only freaked out a couple of times) and luckily, I didn't have to wait too long until I was sent to camp Lemonier Djibouti. I got settled into a rhythm and started going to the base Chapel for both Sunday and Wednesday services. After a couple of weeks, I was asked to join the team that led the Wednesday night Bible studies. Every week after Bible study, some of the group would go get food together. It was during one of these meals that I met a guy named J. D. We quickly hit it off as we liked a lot of the same things and we had very similar personalities. We both liked talking about our faith, relationships, politics, and our hobbies. I mentioned to him that I would be going back to my job in Arlington and he mentioned that he lived there too! That was really good news because I didn't know anyone there.

One night, the group was talking about relationships, and J. D., as the only married person was giving his thoughts. At some point, J. D. mentioned to me that I should date his sister, but I had heard that line before... We didn't really talk about it much after that (as boys do- Tori), but we agreed to hang out when we got back to the states.

Tori: I’ve always pestered J. D. to set me up with one of his friends, so naturally when he got back from deployment I asked him if he did anything useful while he was gone, aka find me a cute guy. Surprisingly, this time he said yes… He had no helpful information on him though because he didn’t know his last name (I couldn’t insta stalk) and didn’t have any pictures of him.

Hunter: A couple months after we got back, we finally got a time on the calendar to hang out. He mentioned to me that his sister and her roommate were coming.

Tori: I was told either the day before or the day of that I could come over to hang out and meet this guy, but I had to bring a friend because we were playing a board game.

Hunter: When I knocked on the door, I had a moment of panic: "What if the very attractive woman that answered the door is Tori's roommate? That would be an awkward conversation with J. D.!" "Hi, I'm Tori" she said with a smile, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Tori: After that night, I didn’t think Hunter was interested in me since we didn’t talk a whole lot.

Hunter: Pretty girls are scary! Anyway, after several months of hanging out with J. D. and Aubrey-

Tori: I like to call them chaperoned dates

Hunter: - a double date fell through, and I decided to ask Tori if she still wanted to do something, even though it was just us. She said yes! We went to see a movie and afterward I asked if she wanted to go on an official date. She said "yeh" without making eye contact...

Tori: hey, cute guys are scary!

Hunter: On our first official date she was more comfortable -

Tori: I picked hiking as a first date so I wouldn’t have to make eye contact (hehe)

Hunter: - which made asking her on a second date much easier. From there it was pretty easy. We bonded over our love for Jesus, active adventures, and family. We could go from having a deep conversation to bursting out laughing in no time.

Tori: It didn’t take much time for us to recognize that we had it pretty good. After all, my friends and family all loved him and saw how good he was for, and to, me. So, he took me back to Great Falls where we had our first date and asked me to marry him!

Hunter: We’ve learned a lot about how to love each other and look forward to continually getting better at it. We are very excited for our future and to celebrate with you in November!

The end/beginning 😊