Our Love Story
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Happily Erwin After
That’s where we are right now, but our love story started 4 years ago and it was purely God’s perfect timing in every sense of those words.
I’ll start from the beginning of our love story, then I’ll rewind to some of those God-wink moments and interesting coincidences over the years that we didn’t quite see until we got together…
In the Spring of 2017, I graduated from college. I had truly kissed some frogs before I got to my prince. I spent my college years in some toxic relationships that weren’t good for me. Right before graduation came around and knowing I would be starting my new internship in the adult world, I had hit that point of “Imma do me”. That mindset of not yearning or wanting love and relationships but just wanting to focus on my own dreams and chase God’s plan for my life.
I have always been a hopeless romantic so this mindset was new for me. But it was there. And as the old saying goes, ‘it’s when you stop looking that you find love’.
When I graduated college I was back home living with my parents and my nephew was over spending the night. We were watching The Incredibles (one of my favorite Disney movies) and I tweeted about it. Something silly of course- those were the days when Twitter was just fun and not so annoying like it is today.
Unexpectedly, one of my old coworkers from Nike, Wyatt, replied to my tweet and said how underrated it was and of course I agreed because it absolutely was. Then. Then, he said “we will watch it when I get back” (He was living in Florida at the time)
What. What does one do with that? Was he flirting with me? Was he saying we should get our old Nike crew back together to hang out? Was he one of those guys? We had been friends for years and he never gave off that impression, but what did this mean?
So after consulting with my bestie and giving it about 20 hours, I ‘liked’ the tweet and responded with a ‘thumbs up’ emoji. Seemed like a safe option. Didn’t want to seem too excited, but didn’t want to be rude and ignore him or shut him down. After all, he was always so cute and fun to work with.
Apparently to him, that was me shutting him down. Three days had passed and- crickets. I was with some friends those three days later and told them about it, showed them his Instagram, and they supported me making the next move- so I sent him a snapchat. That was at the end of May in 2017.
And we have talked every day since then.
It started out as snapchatting and texting which lead to phone calls too, and I definitely started to catch feelings. For sure. Like I mentioned, he was living in Florida at the time, so we planned out our first official date for when he got back home in August to finish his final semester. We had it planned out perfectly after we talked about our shared love of Mexican food and movies.
But, wow. The feelings were growing stronger and stronger the more we talked, and I got to the point where I decided I just needed to slow things down because August felt so far away. I couldn’t keep letting my feelings continue to grow for this guy that I felt like may never come home.
And he was feeling the same way. Thank goodness!
He decided to come home earlier than planned. After driving through the night, and getting some rest during the day, we went on our first date on July 9, 2017.
The best date ever.
He picked me up, I was late getting ready (of course), and we went to Los Mariachi’s and to a movie. I still remember the butterflies I felt that night- so so nervous!
He grabbed my hand during the movie and held it the rest of the time. Then when we got to the car, he kissed me. The best kiss I had ever had. Everything just clicked and I knew. I knew he was going to be a huge part of my life, maybe even the biggest part of my life. A life changing kiss!
We talked non stop the entire drive back to my parents house and there were no more nerves. We were both having too much fun talking and laughing to even think about being nervous. Once we got back to my parents house, we sat in the driveway and talked for what seemed like hours and planned out our next date too. It was so hard to say goodbye even just after our first date.
And the rest as they say, is history!
The ‘Will you be my girlfriend?’ question (8/10/17), the ‘I love you’ (9/5/17), and all the first trips, holidays, birthdays just felt so right. I never looked back on that way of thinking that I had right after college of just wanting to be on my own.
Everything I did in life, I knew I wanted Wyatt right there at my side. I knew he was the one.
On September 7, 2018 Wyatt surprised me on my birthday by asking me the best question and the easiest yes of my life. A whole bunch of romantic, meaningful words followed by ‘Will you marry me?’ followed by my ugly crying and a huge ‘YES’ followed by our families yelling and cheering behind me.
He had planned everything so perfectly and it meant the world. He even arranged for us to meet up with my friends at a bar after dinner with our families.
After 10 months of wedding planning, we got married on July 27, 2019. The BEST day of our lives. We were surrounded by the people we love- family, friends, and some angels too. I can’t even begin to explain how incredible it felt to marry the absolute love of my life and know in full confidence that God had brought us together. I married my best friend.
We went on a relaxing and fun-filled honeymoon to the beach and to Walt Disney World after that. Then in August 2019, we bought and moved into our first home together. Our dreamy little yellow home that we fell in love with when we first walked in the doors. Just like our love, we knew it was right.
Learning how to live together and be married is some serious adulting. But every day we would simply wake up and choose each other. It’s not always easy, but it’s so so worth it. Now read that last sentence again for emphasis. 😉
We became parents to the most adorable, lovable, and ornery Chocolate Lab in April 2020. When I first held our boy, my heart grew so big and I knew he was ours. We named him Rory (like Rory McIlroy- Wyatt’s favorite golfer, and Rory Gilmore- from my favorite TV show). Much like our love and our home, we knew it was meant to be.
Since then, we have been in this incredibly blessed season of growth, contentedness, learning, and simply being together. Again, it’s not always easy, but I wouldn’t change a bit of this life for anything.
I promised you some incredible God wink moments and some interesting ‘coincidentals’ after our love story, so here they are…
Wyatt and I worked together off and on at Nike for years. He had worked there since he was 16 and I started there after my freshman year of college. It was off and on because he was always leaving for a few months at a time to go back for his Disney College Program in Florida.
I always enjoyed working with him, because he was a good worker and we could both get tasks done so well together. I appreciate a good work ethic…and not everyone we worked with had that! He was such a sweetheart too. He would always ask me about school, my life, and at Christmas time he even asked me what my boyfriend got me.
I thought he was just the nicest guy! What a great friend to always care about me and my life. Turns out he asked so many questions because he wanted to know when/if I was single.I never realized this, and in those years I was pretty much always with someone. I always thought he was cute but never thought of it more than that. Plus, he was always being set up with other girls at Nike. Thanks alot, Nikk!
Anyways, he and Nikk, one of our mutual friends from Nike, were heading down to Orlando for Wyatt’s long stay in March 2017 (just a few months before he decided to shoot his shot). I was bored at school and snapchatted them on their drive. (More social media involved in this relationship LOL) Well, apparently he told Nikk that I was ‘Wifey-material’. That was such a cool story to hear after we had been dating. The wheels were set in motion, before we even knew it!
A story that gives me chills to tell now, is a story of Wyatt’s pure and kind heart and more of the wheels being set in motion for what would become our future. I was going through an extremely emotional time in life that wasn’t shared with many people because it was private and deep. This was in the Spring of my senior year of college. Again Twitter coming into play here, I tweeted just simply asking for prayers. Wyatt saw it and sent a text to a ‘Kylie’ in his contacts saying that he was sending prayers my way and that he was here if I needed anything. I mean, come on, what a great man!
Turns out, he had another Kylie in his contacts that wasn’t me that that sweet message went to. He told me that story after a few months of dating when I shared with him what was going on in that time of my life with my family. He told me that story and I got chills. It’s one of those moments for me that was a pure God wink. In a time when I felt so much confusion and grief, someone was there and caring and praying and I didn’t even know it. And now, I got to love this man. God is just so cool.
Another crazy story about God just planting little seeds of our love story is that of a car breakdown. I was on my way to Wilmington during the summertime to have dinner with a person I was dating to end the relationship completely and break up. It was a middle point so we decided to meet there. I had my mind made up and I was done. This was the summer before my junior year I believe. So two years before Wyatt and I got together, but we were working together at the time.
Anyways, I was on my way to do the breaking up, and right after I got off on my exit, my car overheated. I remember being on the side of the road waiting for my Dad and thinking, ‘God, is this a sign? Am I not supposed to be doing this? Am I not supposed to be ending this toxic relationship?’ And even my Mom and Dad both asked me if I thought this was a sign that I shouldn’t do this, if I thought I was being held up for a reason. But I knew in every part of me that I needed to end that relationship.
Here’s the interesting thing- the place where my car overheated and broke down, was just down the road from Wyatt’s house. God wasn’t telling me not to go through with this breakup with this other guy. God was like Girl, I’m literally stopping you right where you should be. Pretty cool to think about now.
Wyatt and I have talked about how we don’t think we would have been truly ready for each other before we started dating, but how interesting that was to look back on and think, ‘Man, God always had it all figured out, when I didn’t’. He always does.
We both had other plans for our future, but when we started dating, we knew it was endgame. Wyatt had plans to move back to Florida permanently after he graduated in December 2017. But I was his ‘game changer’ as he loves to call me.
I won’t bore you with more stories of little things I’ve thought about or we’ve talked about since we have been together from the years when we were just friends, but these were the ones that stood out to me the most.
God’s Sweet, Perfect Timing
I truly believe in trusting in God’s sweet, beautiful timing. Everything in my life and now in our lives- the good and the bad- when I know it’s in God’s hands I can feel that full peace knowing that nothing will happen too early or too late, even when I get impatient.
I prayed for a good man for years. And there were times I thought God had shown me, but I was wrong. I was impatient and in a period of preparation for the time when God would not just bring the “right” man into my world, but a man that would love me like no other, and even strengthen my faith too. I was impatient, but God was preparing me so I could truly appreciate the amazing man that Wyatt was/is and how trust in God’s timing is so important.
Even though being an adult isn’t easy, being a newlywed, a homeowner, a teammate, a partner- none of it is easy. But when you are with the right person and knowing in full faith that God wrote your story and is still in it with you, then sometimes those frustrations just seem so minimal.
Choosing each other every day is so important. Remembering why you fell in love is so important. Taking time for each other is so important. Date nights, just do it!
Recreate those traditions together! Every year on July 9th we have recreated our first date, and this year we will go on our second anniversary trip- just a little getaway together to leave reality in the dust for a couple days. I know one day when life gets even crazier, we will need these times to bring us back to the place we were on our first date and on our wedding day.
I love our love story, and the beauty of it, is that it is still being written.
We get asked all the time about when we will grow our family, and truthfully in our hearts we are trusting that to God’s timing. He blessed us in such an incredible way with our love, that we know He will do the same when it’s time for us to have a baby.
There’s nothing we both want more in this life than to be parents, but we are trusting God wholeheartedly with this one.
I mean after the way He brought us together in such a beautiful love, who are we to question it?
“Every love story is beautiful, but ours is my favorite.”
Lord, I pray that the person reading this can see and experience the beauty of Your perfect timing. I pray they can keep their eyes open and trust You with their story and plan for their life. Lord, I pray for those still in the waiting season of life- please give them hope and patience. Please help us continue to put full trust in your plan for our lives too. Help us to never forget the blessings you have given us in each other. Amen.
All the love,
