our story // Scott and Becca

     Scott and I met last 4th of July, through a mutual friends huge annual picnic. As it turns out, they were our only mutual connection at the time. :) 
     I struggle with being very shy, so the whole day I was hanging out with my mom and Aunt, or holding my baby sister, instead of socializing. I wasn't really excited to spend the whole day around a crowd of people, but looking back I am so incredibly glad my family decided to attend. 

     Apparently, Scott was watching me that day, but I never even noticed, and he was too shy to introduce himself at the time. So instead of coming to talk to me, he and a friend found me online... We have since talked about it, and if Scott had tried to talk to me that day, I honestly would have probably not encouraged him at all, because I am shy and not very comfortable talking to guys in general.

      So, we both ended up going home, and I had no idea he was about to rock my world! two days later, I got a text message through my Google account from Scott, introducing himself and explaining that he had really wanted to talk to me, but hadn't, and wondering if I would be interesting in talking. I immediately freaked out! My family has always had a strict "no private contact with the opposite gender "  policy, and a guy I didn't know at all had just randomly contacted me. I knew I had to talk to my dad before replying to him and I was honestly very nervous about how my dad would respond. So I took almost 24 hours to just pray about it before finally feeling a peace about talking to my dad. I emailed him at work, and awaited a response. (So he would have time to think about it and calm down before we talked. haha) 

     My parents were obviously concerned, wondering who this guy was, and we contacted our friends to ask about him. They reassured us that he was a real person, not a stalker, and they attended Church with him. But didn't have too many other details for us. After much consideration, my parents decided that I should reply, and then decided that we needed to meet as soon as possible.

     We met at the river for a picnic six days later, and it was the most nerve-wracking situation. We chose not to tell any of my siblings what was going on, so they were blissfully unaware of the tension going on. I was shaking so bad from nerves when they arrived, and held Lydia almost the entire time to try to mask that. He claims that he was as nervous as I was, but he is way better at faking calm than I am! We didn't talk a lot, (Even after my mother insisted I leave her alone and go sit by him! :) but it was reassuring to know that he was a normal, sane person. I was also somewhat reassured by the fact that the first personal question he asked me was for my testimony. 

     And so, that started a slow, cautious  correspondence between us. It started with chatting online a couple hours a week, and spending time with my family every couple weeks. That changed into phone calls and more involved conversations. 

 

     And eventually, I realized that he was the person I looked forward to talking to the most. That he was always in my thoughts, and it didn't matter what I was doing or who I was with, somehow I was always thinking about him. My parents asked me to keep out friendship between just our families for the first eight months, because we weren't officially in a relationship, just cautiously getting to know each other with that possibility in the back of our minds. It was so hard not to talk about him, when I was thinking about him so much! :) I had to constantly stop sentences short in normal conversations with girlfriends because he was such a huge part of my life!

     Then, on March 25th, we met with my parents to talk about where we were in our friendship, and it was a whirl-wind of a conversation, but by the end of it, Scott and I officially had permission to court!! We were so excited and happy to begin this new part of our relationship. And it meant that I was finally allowed to talk about him, and that we would also be able to spend more time together! 

      So we continued spending time together, with my family, I began occasionally attending his Church, and starting to get to know some of the people on his end. (He lives about an hour drive away from me.). 

 

     In the five months we courted, we fell completely in love with each other. I can honestly say that he is my best friend, and my favorite person in the world! There is nobody I would rather be with! 

     On September 16, 2016, Scott took me out for a "date." We were going to dinner, the beach on the river and then a movie. But once we finally left my house, he started stressing about not having time to get dinner and then see the sunset at the river, so we decided to just go to the river first. (Although both of us were very hungry!) We ended up wading out into the river and just making small talk. (I think he was really excited and nervous. But he knew I was was going to say yes... :) Finally he started to tell me how much he loved me and a lot of other beautiful things I can't remember at all! (I was too excited to pay super close attention.) And then suddenly he was holding out the most beautiful ring and asked me to marry him. I said "OF COURSE!" ;)

And now we are planning a wedding, our home, and to spend absolutely forever together!

l i f e // november

    

I kind of feel like this season of life should be officially renamed from "engaged" to "Wedding Planning!"I'm always working on it, and  have to consciously make an effort to not talk about it constantly. Its honestly astonishing how many thousands of details and decisions there are to be made. I have lists everywhere which is helping,  but we have to decide everything from shiny tulle or matte tulle, to his wedding band, to what kind of dessert we'll be serving.There are so many things we don't have figured out yet, like honeymoon plans, and what time we're having the wedding... (On a side note, I did my passport application today... even though we don't know where we're going yet. And I was happy the photograph didn't turn out as awful as I've heard most do. ;) 

    I am so excited to get to marry my best friend, (92 days!) and I cannot wait until our wedding day. But lately I've been thinking so much about after the wedding and honeymoon are over. The weeks and months after we say "I do" and real life begins. People keep asking me if I'm nervous to get married. And I'm not nervous at all about marrying Scott. I am completely at peace with the decision to get married, and I'm beyond excited to be his wife and spend forever with him. 
     The only part that makes me nervous at this point is learning to run a household by myself, (obviously with him, but I mean without my mom overseeing things.) and everything that entails. Having to decide what to do for meals every.single.day! Finding a balance between working, and keeping the house together. But I keep hearing that it'll be fine, we'll figure out how to make everything work, and things will settle down into a routine. My sister-in-law and a couple friends have been a huge help with it comes to questions about all that. :)

     Its so strange to think about the fact that in three months I won't be living with my family. I won't be doing any of my normal routine, nannying for my cute kiddos, running siblings around, or the endless laundry. The people I nanny for are starting to look for a new Nanny.  Last month I visited my best friend, Hannah, for a long weekend, and it felt so odd, because its one of the last times we'll hang out just being girly like that. 

anyhow, what has been happening in your life lately? 

xx