How did you meet? What was your first date like? Give us all the details!

We met at a restaurant in Grant, Michigan. The moment we met, it was like we had known each other forever.

Describe the moment you knew it was true love!
I don’t think there is one specific moment that stands out when I knew Travis was “the one,” it was more that I just knew my life wouldn’t be complete without him. There’s not one thing that made me fall in love with him, it’s a million different little things that filled my heart. I don’t doubt for a second that our relationship happened by the hand of God. I was so skeptical of online dating, but had struck out on every search of my own, finding only horrible bad boys that made me question my faith, my beliefs and my dreams. I knew I needed to get myself in line, so I took a break from looking, learned to love myself, and took the time to rebuild my faith in God. I was working over 40 hours a week at two different jobs and spending any free time I had with my family or behind my camera. I had no idea how God would bring me anyone to love when I had literally no time to go anywhere or do anything. After someone mentioned online dating and a lot of praying, I re-activated my account on ChristianMingle, thinking that this way, God could bring me someone while I was so busy. The next day, I had a smile waiting for me from Travis. Now, who sent that first smile to whom is debated, but what matters is that from that day forward, Travis and I talked every day.

My nephew is very important to me, in fact, he had been praying for me to find a good guy who would love me and love Jesus. He was the reason I realized I deserved better than these bad boys that hurt me. His innocence and strong faith in Jesus made me trust his opinion so, I asked him one afternoon to come and look at my “Mingle Matches.” He looked at the faces of my matches and I asked him whom I should be talking to. He picked Travis. I would repeat this practice every time I got new matches, but he always picked Travis, no matter where his picture was on the screen. I took this as a good sign, as well as the fact that I had been spending so much time getting to know and like Travis already through our messages.

We decided we wanted to meet in person. As he was from Grand Rapids and I was in Muskegon, we decided to meet at The Depot in Grant on March 10, 2014, after about a month of emailing. Well, God gave us an 8-lb. obstacle to that plan, because on March 9, my beautiful niece joined in the fun. As the official photographer for the family, I wanted to make sure I saw my Gramma hold my niece for the first time, but she wasn’t able to get up to the hospital until March 10. Before I could even ask Travis to switch the date, he asked if I would want to meet the 11th instead so I could spend another day with my new niece. This meant so much to me, and I went to share the news with my family of our rescheduled date. My nephew was so excited that we were going to go meet Travis. It took him a little bit to understand that that I was the only one going to our first date!

The day of our first date, I spent over an hour getting myself ready. Just before I had to leave, my niece came home from the hospital. She gave me a “good luck” snuggle and I was out the door. I didn’t think I’d be gone long, I assumed we’d have dinner and I’d be heading home. After we shook hands and were seated, we became quick friends with the waitress (to ease the tension of meeting someone brand new) and became even better friends with each other. It was so comfortable to talk to him (we talked like we had known each other for forever) and before we knew it, we closed the restaurant down. We had agreed that he would come to my house for my birthday party with my family the following week. Yes, we had just met and I asked him to come and meet the family, but I knew my niece would really be the center of attention. We hugged goodbye and I knew that day that he would be in my life forever.

At my birthday party, much to my embarrassment, my nephew asked Travis if he was my boyfriend. As I walked Travis to his car that night, I asked him what I should call him. “Since your nephew calls me your boyfriend, maybe you should, too.” My birthday wishes and my prayers had come true!

After a few weeks, Travis surprised me with a date to see, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” (my favorite superhero!). From the moment he knocked on my door that day, I had been hoping he would kiss me. As he prepared to leave, without even an attempt at a kiss all day, I hoped he would as we said “goodbye.” As I went to give him a kiss on the cheek, he met me with his lips. I remember him saying, “Oh, wow” and me floating back to my house. It took hours to settle those butterflies.

He joined my family for Easter that year, as I had to work as soon as dinner was over. He walked me to my car and I gave him a quick kiss.

He said “Bye, I love you.”

I quickly replied without thinking “Love you, too.” It took me a second to realize what he had said to me. I took two steps back and looked him in the eyes and said, “You do?” I gave him another kiss and told him I loved him again, more butterflies to nurture.

By Christmas of our first year together, we had spent a lot of time with his family and mine, especially mine as my Gramma had been in and out of the hospital in October and November. After I left my first Christmas with his family to rejoin mine, my Gramma was taken by ambulance back to the hospital, and she wouldn’t ever return home.

Travis took me to go and see her in the ICU. She joked about Travis being her boyfriend (as she joked for months before) and we laughed. As he and I left, in the elevator as I tried to stand strong and not break, he wrapped his arms around me and held me.

I was asleep at his brother and sister-in-law’s house in Cedar Springs after a New Year’s Eve party when I got the phone call at 8 a.m. from my dad that I needed to get back to Muskegon because Gramma wasn’t going to make it. I slipped out of the guest room and snuck to the basement to wake Travis, but found him already awake. I told him I had to leave, he walked me to my car and made sure I knew how to get home. He told me he’d be praying, that he would tell his family and asked me to keep him updated as he had to work the whole day. His brother, sister-in-law and Travis checked in on me periodically throughout the day as we waited. He was the first person I called after my Gramma passed that night at 10:30 p.m., and just hearing his voice helped dull the ache even if only for a few minutes.

I had a very hard time after my Gramma died; she was one of my best friends and the only grandparent I had the time to get to know. I was in the lowest of lows. I was snippy with people, I didn’t know how to handle so much emotion. Travis didn’t get angry when I would start a fight with him over stupid things and he was very patient with me. He stayed by my side every step of the way, through the planning, visitation, funeral (where he held my hand with one hand, a box of tissues with the other) and the roller coaster of emotions that followed. I always joked that if I didn’t scare him away during that, then we were truly meant to be.

As he joined my family on vacation months later, he surprised me with a promise ring on the top of Little Round Top in my favorite place on earth, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

As we approached Thanksgiving, I began to think we were going to get engaged, but it didn’t happen, and while I was bummed, I finally decided that I had to trust that God and Travis had better plans for when it would happen. As we were putting up our first Christmas tree together, he gave me a bridal magazine. I flipped through it quickly as we had plans to go Christmas shopping, and when I saw he was ready to leave, I tossed it to the table.

“You didn’t look through that very well.” He remarked.

I sat back down and picked it up again. Taped to the last page, in a little baggy, was an engagement ring, my great-grandmother’s ring.

“Is this for real?”

“Yes. You said the answer would be ‘yes’…”

“What’s the question?”

“Will you marry me?”

“YES!”

Since our engagement we’ve been on quite the journey. He, officially, became Uncle Travis to my nephew and niece, and I, officially, became Aunt Megan to his nephew.

He was by my side as I had surgery on my feet to relieve the pain I had lived with for nearly 10 years.

We searched for a house, found one, made an offer and have gone through the entire process down to the signing, and now we’re here.

We’re taking the craziest, exciting, scariest, happiest step ever! We’re getting married, promising that whatever comes our way, we’ll face it together with God on our side.

With all we’ve faced before, I can tell you that I know our life isn’t going to be easy from here on out, but I can say that our life is going to be interesting and full of love

What advice would you give other ChristianMingle members?
Learn to love yourself and find your place with God before you take on the responsibility of holding someone else’s heart. God may have the perfect fit for you, but it still isn’t going to be easy, and you have to make sure that God is the center of your relationship.

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