We met in Birmingham, coaching basketball at the same school. We also had several mutual friends. Our first date was at Crestwood Tavern. It will forever go down as the best date of my life. We liked each other alot from the get go and that night was so much fun.

We don’t necessarily have a favorite movie or song, but we both love movies. It is one of our things to do. Also, music…haha…Lou Ellen is obsessed with music and bands. We go through seasons of our favorite rap song. LOL. At one point we listened to Beyonce everytime we were together for a month.

Our guilty pleasure would probably be that we like to watch Greys Anatomy, Scandal, and the Bachelor together. More my guilty pleasure. Probably socially acceptable for her to watch those shows.

It did not go as planned. Ha! I had this elaborate plan to take her to breakfast and then to a hike (outdoors) at a state park close by. I was going to propose at the highest point. She loves the outdoors and going on hikes. Unfortunately, it was absolutely dreadful weather wise that morning and day. It was 40 degrees and raining. Haha. Needless to say she did not want to go for a hike after I asked 3 times. Instead, we went to breakfast…back to her house to watch football bowl games. I called her back to her room and had a chair sitting in the middle of her room. Candles were lit and the light was really low. She was watching some Kevin Hart comedy videos on youtube in the den and was laughing hard. She kept calling me back out to the den and I kept replying with “No! you come back here!” She finally did and slid in her socks on the hard wood. She was being incredibly goofty, until she saw her room. I sat her in the chair and started my proposal. It was a very neat moment and perfect for us. I had her parents, family, my parents, and family, along with her closest friends coming in to surprise her later that day. We had everyone over to her house. Her parents went all out. We watched the Alabama bowl game then went to a nice dinner that night for new years. It was a great great day.

I would have to say that we like to watch movies, sports (basketball or football), and go out to eat at fun restaurants..

We have so many stories that are both fun and then stories that are serious and hard that have all lead to us getting married. We love it all and are so glad we get to marry each other.

Part of our story is the fact that I have been married before and went through a really bad divorce. Right after all of that went down, I had cancer on my face (melanoma). I had to have 3 surgeries to remove and repair it. It was a huge ordeal. My mom was also fighting for her life in ICU for 8 months. It was a terrible time in my life. Lou Ellen and I were friends and had started seeing each other. She was an unbelievable support and cheerleader to me. I was a broken man and she was a gift that I didn’t expect to receive. Especially at that time. She was so consistent and grace giving to me during all of that. I saw how amazingly loyal she was to me. I knew we had a ton of compatitbility, but sometimes timing doesn’t work out or other things keep people from being together. Her dad wanted me to meet with Church Elders in order for him to give permission for us to officially date. We both knew that should that happen and we get his permission, we knew that would lead to us getting married because it is what we both had in our hearts from the very first date.

Lou Ellen has my heart for all of that and so many more reasons. I would literally go to war for her and die if I had to. God used her to show me that he is a God of redemption, grace, mercy, and love. He used Lou Ellen to show me that through brokenness, goodness will come. I think of that every time I look at her. She will always be a visual reminder to me of his grace, love, redemption, and goodness.