the story of us. 🤍

hello. i know it has been a minute since i have shown my face here.

well. alot in my life has happened.

the end of october i received a text message from this human and since, well... my life has not been the same.

i want to introduce this human that has changed my life. his name is jacob devon shetler. but he goes by jake.

so many of you have been asking about our story. so here in short i will try to tell you about how we got here from the time we met.

july of 2019 there was a wedding held in winton. i was home from the unit and it was before i left to go teach in center. the friday night before the wedding, these guys come to ball. i go over and meet them because we wouldn't want them to think we weren't friendly. one of them was jake. over that weekend, i sat with him at the saturday night supper and served with him at the wedding. 

some things i remember: he informed me that i needed to move from california. which i responded that i was leaving very soon. we had good conversation while we served together. 

ok. now fast forward until the fall of 2023.

i decided to go to versailles to a singles rally. before i said i would go, i prayed and it seemed like the right thing to do. (i did not know he was going to be there, when i said i would go.. i had wondered if he would be.. )

the rally started on friday evening. i seen him but did not talk to him.

saturday evening. this is where everything changed. 

a bunch of us were sitting around a table talking. i remember him talking and by what he was saying.. not sure if we would connect.

then we all decided to move and sit by the fire.. 

this is really all you need to know about the evening. he ended up sitting next to me and we stayed by the fire for a few hours and talked.

we hung out some on sunday.. exchanged a few smiles.

and then monday came. i had planned to take my own car to kansas city and then leave straight from there to go home...

well. mr jake asked if maddie and i wanted to come with him and his two friends. & in a split second a decision was made to go with him :) 

after that weekend.. i went home. & was extra happy. i knew that i would see him again around thanksgiving at a friends get together.

october 26. it happened to be my birthday. it was a very busy day for me. spent most of the day at the ranch. quickly went home to pack my pack for our backpacking trip that we were leaving on the next morning and get ready to go to the youth chili supper. after the chili supper, the youth decided to play ball. i went to my car to check my phone. & there was a message from  j a k e. (he wrote a very charming and witty message)  i first off called my mom and HAD to tell her. i did reply to him and then went back in to play ball where i felt that i was bouncing off the walls.

side note: he did not know it was my birthday when he text me. 

the next weeks, we communicated and started getting to know each other..

we both would be going to a friends gathering the weekend of thanksgiving. he wondered if i would want to go with him and his friends. which i said i did. 

i had thanksgiving with him and some of his family. then spent the next few days hanging out in cincinnati..

the monday after thanksgiving, i spent the day with him and was privileged to meet his parents, who were overly excited to meet me. (this is their baby we are talking about here )

i flew home to california for my winter holiday.

december 16. the day i was asked to marry this person that makes my heart happy.

i had not been feeling my best self and just been relaxing.. my dad came inside and it had looked like he had been crying. i asked him what was wrong but he didn't answer. i didn't think too much about it and went to my room. (completely oblivious to what was really going on) then my parents come in there and my dad tells me that gary had called him and there was a proposal for me.

then i call gary back to say, yes. yes. i would marry jacob devon shetler.

he had planned to let me have the whole month of december at home with my family.. but that did not happen and i am very thankful.

i waited. thinking jake would call me. but he did not. he text me. we did talk for just a short 26 minutes because it is saturday afternoon and we have friends and family we wanted to tell before we were announced.

it was so fun telling friends and family when they had no clue this was coming.. because i was going back to raising hope ranch january 3.

we plan to be married march 3, 2024, our Lord willing. 🤍

i flew back to arkansas to collect my things left here (and for sure my plants) and to have closure on this portion of my life. & it gives my ranch family a chance to have closure.

God has been so good to have given me this gift of working at raising hope ranch to fulfill a dream.

the 19th is my last day at the ranch.

it will be a day full of sadness and joy. i will say goodbye to my people here ... and then drive to see jake, which is very exciting. :) 

my parents have never met this charming human that has changed my life. that is changing this saturday. we all are going to be in florida for a few days together. then jake is flying home with my parents and i. :)