Hello, friends! It's been several months since I've shared anything overly personal, so I thought I'd give y'all a bit of an update on recent life events! When I introduced myself to our readers, way back in September one of my roles was "girlfriend". I'm happy to report, that title has quickly changed from "fiance" to "wife" in a matter of weeks!! Hunter is the most amazing man I could've ever asked for, and I am so thankful that we get to spend our days learning, growing, and loving life together! I want to give you a little backstory on our love story, first. Then we'll dive in to our engagement, wedding planning, and elopement!
I met Hunter when I was in 9th grade and he was in 11th grade. One of his good friends at the time, was dating my best friend from high school-- shoutout to you, Blake! We (the girls) were at El Tapatio in Dexter one night before going to a movie, and Hunter and a couple friends met us there. Hunter ended up getting my number from my friend. We texted back and forth for a good period of time, we would stay up way too late talking on the phone, Hunter and his buddy came to some of our basketball games (Blakely and I were cheerleaders), and then nothing ever really came of it. We were just friends at this point, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't think he was hilarious and super interesting! 😉 We both dated other people, but always made time to send birthday texts/Merry Christmas/etc... I think I probably made up excuses to text him 😂 because we always ended up having such good conversations about anything and everything!
This friendship (mostly through short texts) continued at random, throughout the rest of high school and college. I made college rough on myself, because I had set this impossible timeline for myself, and was not trusting in God's plan (obviously my own fault). My faith was quite weak, and I wasn't in a good frame of mind, because things weren't happening according to how I thought they should be. My thought process back then was "I'm 21 and don't know who I'm going to marry, and my life is over." I was so confused, lost, and just completely over not knowing who my person was. I was a failure, in my mind back then, because I couldn't find who I was supposed to be with.
Sometime between winter and spring of 2018, I saw Hunter on one of my friend's snapchat stories one night, singing. So naturally, I sent him a snap and said "you're singing off key", and that sparked a whole new conversation. We've talked every day since that day! I was nearing the end of student teaching and in the process of remodeling my great-grandma's fixer upper (link here to that post), and Hunter was knee deep in being a lineman and turkey hunting in every spare moment.
He finally😃offered to meet me for lunch one Monday since he was off on Mondays, before I went back to school. Our very first date was to the good ole El Tapatio, right back to where we first met (we didn't do this on purpose, but he let me pick and I always pick El Taps LOL). We talked so much on our first date that our food got cold, and I didn't finish my plate (GASP! Unheard of!). He would tell a story, I would tell a story, we'd get distracted and tell a new story before finishing an old story... it was amazing. He had always been so relatable and so intriguing to me, but to have someone to never run out of things to talk about was incredible. I knew from that very day, that I had found the man I was going to spend the rest of my life with!
A few of our other earlier dates included going to Otter Slough, to Mayfest in Perryville (a festival that they have every summer), more fishing trips than I can count, and going to Cape to eat downtown and walk by the river. By May 23, he had asked me to be his girlfriend, and of course I said yes! We spent the summer working on the house that is now ours, fishing, hiking, going to church, spending time with family, and falling reallllllll hard for each other.
Since then, we've added many more adventures-- we've been to Cards games, concerts, got our own kayaks and used them everywhere around here, hunting trips, float trips, running 1/2 marathons, and everything in between! Hunter has gotten me into hunting (mainly deer), but we also spent 3 hours today wandering around looking for antlers. I'd do anything to see him smile😊.
To all my single gals out there-- I am telling you, the sweet guy, the kind guy, the hardworking guy is worth the wait. It may not be on our silly "individual timeline" we've set up, but pray, wait, and trust. Stay tuned for Part 2-- our Engagement!
xoxo,
ljh
Comments