How We Met
Our story begins before we even met. Camden served in the United States Army and went overseas for two tours- Iraq and Afghanistan. His tour in Afghanistan had brought unimaginable experiences and extreme emotional pain. He was left thinking why he was still here, what purpose he had, and he was left on the shaky ground with Faith.
Before meeting him I had been having a difficult time finding the right relationship. Therefore, I had decided to take a “dating fast.” In summary, I was intentionally taking time to focus on myself and set dating aside.
In late July, my Grandma passed away, Camden moved back to West Virginia from Georgia, and my intentional dating fast was coming to an end.
A week later, we were both working out at the same gym in Morgantown.
I saw him and thought he was good looking. I remember praying, “If he is the one you want me to meet, give him the courage to talk to me.
And he did.
We made some small talk and that was that. He was about to leave the gym and I was still working out. However, I had this strong feeling that our small talk is not where our story ends, so I pretended I needed to go to the locker room, aka I was hoping to run into him.
And I did.
And he went out a limb and asked me to dinner. And I went out on a limb and said yes. We went out to dinner and have been together ever since.
I also need to mention that during my dating fast, I made a list of everything I wanted in a man. He checked all of the boxes, right down to the very little details.
Camden describes our meeting as “darkness meeting the light.” After we were together, the life-changing pain he had suffered began to make more sense. Additionally, He ended up joining the Catholic Church (the faith I grew up with).
In the end, we were both what each other needed the most.
how they asked
Camden and I had been together for 3 years. Unknowing to me, all of the gifts he had bought me during the duration of our time together had all been part of his proposal plan. Additionally, all of the places we went the day before he asked had all been part of his proposal plan, too.
When he asked me, he gave me 8 letters. The first 4 contained an explanation for the previous day’s seemingly random adventures- all fitting into an “old, new, borrowed, blue” theme. The next 4 letters were explanations of gifts he had bought me in years past- all fitting the same “old, new, borrowed, blue” theme.
The gifts were:
Old: A locket he had bought me with my grandma’s picture that represented old, everlasting love
New: My dog Winnie- she was the new life in our relationship.
Blue: Blue converses he once bought me for my birthday as well as a garden he made for me and added blue flowers to it.
Borrowed: This alluded to the hand-me-down engagement ring that was given to him. Then he asked me to marry him, with my grandma’s ring <3 It was so incredibly thoughtful and meaningful. As a veteran and paramedic, he has a very tough exterior but underneath it,
He is extremely thoughtful and creative.