She said Yes!

I knew I wanted to marry Cara in November of 2012. We had been together one year. I was in my first year teaching, and she was off saving the world by responding to  natural disasters and through conservation.  It was the first day of Thanksgiving break. I was exhausted. For my educators out there, you know the refuge that is Thanksgiving Break. I laid on the couch paralyzed from my exhaustion and overwhelmed by the fact that the next day one of my best friends was coming to visit us in St. Louis. Our apartment was a mess, but I couldn't muster up the energy  to clean. This is where Cara stepped in, she turned on her slow jams and went to work. She washed, dusted, mopped and (literally and figuratively) swept me off of my feet.

It was in this moment, as she serenaded me to "Your Song" from Moulin Rouge (which is our song), that I realized I could easily spend the rest of my life loving her. Now I would be lying if I said this was the first time I had felt this way about her. I knew when I first met her that she was special and dangerous.

A year earlier on November 18, 2011,  we met  for the first time. After chatting online and on the phone for a few months, she assertively asked when we would actually meet. We both lived in Battle Creek, MI, went to the same gym and she even drove past me entering work in the morning on her drive home from work (3rd shift Zombie!). I agreed, it was probably time. We met for Mexican. I was about 30mins late--this was not a date and I'm Jessica 😌-she lectured me on respecting time. We bickered over who would pay the check, she won. She walked me to my car, and  I awkwardly gave her a high five. She hugged me, and I asked if we could get breakfast the next morning.

Though this dinner wasn't a date, it felt like one. I stood her up for breakfast the next day, but she came over to my place to see me anyway. Since then we've been inseparable. That Monday, three days after we met in person, I met her mom. We went to her house and watched Moulin Rouge. Moulin Rouge is significant in our relationship because it was through the film that I met her family, and through "your song" that I realized that she not only possessed my heart, she is my heart. As such, it was only fitting that I asked for Cara's hand in marriage outside of Moulin Rouge in Paris. It was here on May 18, 2015 (exactly 3.5 years after we met) that her resounding yes began to solidify the extension of our families. Can't wait for our September 2017 Wedding, be ready fam!




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