Grateful, thankful, blessed is an understatement. Ethan Andrew is my prayer warrior, friend, brother in Christ, encourager, protector, partner, valentine, fiancé, and future forever. No he did not become these things over night, and no our relationship has not been a walk in the park, however I wouldn’t trade our past or our story for anything.

Now to the fun part – our beginning. It all started at Acme Brick – yes –  acme…brick. Who would have thunk it? Definitely not our parents, thats for sure. Way back when, our Moms sat cubicle to cubicle at Acme Brick and started a friendship that would blossom into something they could’ve never expected.

Flash forward to Ethan and I as children hanging out all the time at mutual friend birthday parties and holiday celebrations.

The one pictured is a “Blues Clues” themed birthday party – and still to today we are wondering why on earth Ethan was sporting a naked baby on his hip – HA.

Life got busy and our families fell out of immediate contact until around 2013 when our moms and their friend, Marion, decided to have a joint family vacation to Seaside, Florida. We loaded up a trailer with bikes, mopeds, floaties, and a golf cart …. yes a golf cart – thanks to my

Mr. Pack It All Dad – and headed on our way! It was an awkward rekindling of friendship due to our lack of familiarity with each other, but overall Seaside was fun, however no – this was not the way our relationship started, we were both in committed relationships at the time.

May 2014 – my high school graduation. I invited Ethan, his mom, and sister to a graduation party in celebration of my two friends and I. I don’t remember this night at all – it was such a blur due to the amount of people we all three had in attendance, but Ethan remembers it quite vividly. Ethan’s perspective of that night consisted of keeping an eye on me from a distance “in awe of my genuine beauty.” Even though his stomach was so full he kept making trips inside to grab more food so that he could see what I was up to hahaha – this is by far one of my favorite stories to hear him tell.

Two days after graduation I headed off to Brookhill Ranch Summer Camp where I spent 9 wonderful weeks glorifying My King, My Lord, and My Creator!! Meanwhile throughout the summer I would receive encouraging Facebook messages from Ethan stating that he was praying for me and for my camp kiddos, and in August the messages became more frequent,  I didn’t think much of it until the line “You should text me sometime” popped on my feed.

W. O. W.

I was shook to say the least people – I had never expected to be pursued by such a wonderful Godly man. It took me 4 days to text him back people – f o u r. He later told me he was freaking out waiting for me to respond. My sweet friend, Lisa McKinley, finally told me “lex just text him!!” So I opened my heart up a little and reached out to him. He was so excited! It was priceless. Over the months we got to know each other and prayed heavily as to whether or not our hearts were ready to pursue what could be.

Then on Jan 1st 2015 at 1:00am in the morning on our way to my house from a NYE celebration we attended in Dallas with his family, he asked me to jump in and pursue what could be together. I said yes, and we began our ‘official’ relationship with giddy smiles and open hearts!

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We began dating at a time in my life that wasn’t the most ideal due to my Dad being in a medically induced coma after his second open heart surgery, but Ethan couldn’t have been a more patient, tender, and understanding partner and friend through it all. It is sweet to look back and see what God was doing for our relationship through those trying months, and years of complications after that. Jesus used Ethan as a physical fortress and comfort for myself and my family through it all.

As years passed we grew up and grew together more and more. We started praying over our future and our potential marriage, and for guidance in regards to timing, and on October 7th, 2017 Ethan Andrew Rutter asked me to be his forever, and I said Y E S. 

Deets on our proposal story to come – stay tuned my friends (-;

xoxo,

Lex

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Featured Image taken by Emma Quinlyn Photography