It’s finally Friday! Woo-hoo! This past weekend we got to celebrate my favorite high school sweethearts getting engaged. We’ve known Brock & Audrey since they were freshmen in high school and it’s been so fun watching their relationship grow. Brock proposed to Audrey in front of the house he secretly bought them! What?! How sweet is that?!?

We are so excited for them! Audrey told me once that she and Brock wanted to be like Kyle and I, except they weren’t going to break up in the middle….which leads me to my topic on this Family Friday: my own engagement story! And oddly enough it has a lot to do with children’s ministry…

I met Kyle in the 10th grade and had a BIG crush on him (at that time he was actually dating one of the Posse). We didn’t date until our senior year and it was on and off again a couple of times throughout it. We were both a part of a big group of friends and Kyle was actually best friends with my cousin. Anyway, we went our separate ways, Kyle to Texas A&M and I went to Baylor, but we remained good friends. He really became my best guy friend during that time. It wasn’t until the Baylor vs A&M game in 2005 that we realized we still had feelings for each other and a few weeks after that we got back together. We never said it until much later, but we knew this time we weren’t just casually dating (third time’s a charm, right?).

Long-distance wasn’t always easy, but it definitely grew our communication skills. We talked pretty much every night and saw each other on weekends when we could. Every summer in college, I interned for my church’s children’s ministry and only had to spend one summer apart (as he was serving as youth pastor for a church in College Station).

The summer of 2007, right before our senior year, Kyle proposed. I knew it would happen that summer, but he totally caught me off guard (we had picked out a ring & I knew he had asked my dad’s blessing). Kyle had come home to visit for the weekend, but told me he was leaving Saturday night (he wasn’t). In fact, I called him on his “supposed” drive back to College Station and he hopped in his car driving around our hometown to throw me off.

So that Sunday (remember I’m a children’s intern), I’m leading worship for our kids, like normal, and I knew after each song we sang a video played after. After the first song, the video plays like normal. After the second song, the video starts playing, but it’s not the right video. It’s pictures of me as a baby set to music. I remember thinking, “I’m getting engaged…wait, maybe? Or is it something the church is doing?”, so I couldn’t fully buy in. Then the pictures of me growing up keep going and then they change to pictures of Kyle and I (then I knew this was a legit proposal). At the same time, all the band members have disappeared off stage and I’m standing alone. The room is totally full, but the lights are down so I can’t see who’s in there. Then the video reads, “There is only one last thing…”. (Ahhhhh!) Out of nowhere Kyle shows up and gets down on one knee. He looks up at me (I’m for sure shaking) and says, “Jessica Hope Patton, will you marry me?” I say yes! We hug (not sure if we kissed since it was a room full of 3rd-5th graders) and then people clap and cheer. And then one boy shouts out, “what the heck just happened?!”

It wasn’t the most romantic setting in the world, but Kyle knew me and he knew my heart. He knew that space was important to me and a place I loved. He knew how much I loved the kids and the people I served with. And he knew, I had to be on a stage (theater girl in me). I loved our engagement story and I love that because he’s my best friend he knew the perfect way to ask me to marry him.

8 years, 3 churches, 2 houses and 2 sweet little girls later, he still knows my heart and puts up with me and my crazy passion for children’s ministry. Kyle is always my biggest supporter and though the journey isn’t always easy, I can’t imagine doing it with anyone else.

Thanks for letting me share,