How We Met
We have lived next door to each other for 20 years before we ever really talked. By next door, I mean our farms touched each other’s but we can’t see each other’s houses. His family farms for a living and had always used our land for hay, soybeans and corn. In exchange for the land, we bought hay for our horses at a lower price. My mother and I had gone to his house a thousand times to get a truck full of hay, but I never talked to him or seen him much. I knew his parents much better than him. His two older sisters baby sat me a few times as well. On top of that, I went to a private school and he went to a public school. We had seen each other around but that was as far as it goes. He was away at college and messaged me on Facebook right before I turned 20. He asked to hang out when he came home from break. I was extremely skeptical and honestly had no interest in a relationship or even dating. My best friend Holly helped convince me to go. “Its just a date, it’s not like you have to see him again,” She would say.
how they asked
We had gone on a Disney cruise with my sister and father in January of 2015. We both loved it and wanted to go back. One of our favorite parts was castaway cay, which is disney’s private island in the Bahamas. It’s so quiet and beautiful there. We rode bikes out to two different points, one of which, I had climbed over the fence to get sea shells. The water was breathtaking and the shells had no damage. People aren’t really allowed to go over the fence, but I didn’t think anyone would see since we were so far from the closest beach. That fall, Matthew had talked about doing another cruise. We asked his parents, sisters and their husbands, and my father and sister if they wanted to go. When no one wanted to, we booked a cruise just for ourselves. On February 23, 2016, we docked at castaway cay. We had planned on jet skiing, but the water was rough so we went on a bike ride instead. I had planned on getting more shells, but a lot of people were coming down the trail and a Disney staff member had rode by on a jet ski, so I didn’t go on the other side of the fence to get them. We left on our bikes, about half way down the trail (it’s pretty long) we went back on our bikes since no one was coming back to the look out point. I was sitting there looking at the water when I turned around and he had wrote our initials in the sand. It was very cute. Next to our initials was a small circle, that he did not make himself. He pointed it out to me and I just thought it was odd. He then asked me to look again, and then there was the ring, in the circle. Not only did he ask me in one of the most beautiful places on the earth, but in the most sweetest way. I don’t remember saying “yes,” I just kept smiling and was very happy.