When I look at where my life is now, I see that I am a very fortunate and blessed person. I have a job that I love, and I’m not hard done by. I’m generally pretty content and am never left wanting. I can be fickle on occasion, but I’m fortunate enough to be surrounded with people that are wise enough to help me though it and patient enough to put up with it. I’ve been gifted, I was saved from strong addictions and depression, and given the spirit of Jesus to replace them. I broke my back and can still walk. God has been good to me.

When I look at the things I’ve been blessed with two stand out amongst a sea of truly amazing things. One is the faith I have in Jesus, the other is my beautiful fiancee Tracey.

I met Tracey at Trinity Community Church. I played in the band, so everyone generally knew who I was, although I couldn’t always return the favour. Often, because it was a much larger church than my first, the sea of faces would blend from week to week. One person that stood out to me every week was Tracey. Her spirit was apparent to everyone around her. Her passion shone, and I couldn’t help be captivated by that. She never cared what anyone else thought about her, she knew what she stood for and she was who she was without compromise. The second thing that drew me to Tracey was her eyes. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but she has the most beautiful, deep, brown eyes. Her inner light has always radiated from them, and that has always served to draw me closer to her.

We served together in different areas of the church, so we would often cross each other’s path on Sunday mornings. Most times I was around her I would end up making a fool of my self and wander off feeling like an idiot. Despite my tendency to continually embarrass myself around her, we slowly became friends. We both share an appreciation for the outdoors and its beauty, particularly around water. We really feel closest to God when we’re outdoors, so our first few outings as friends ended up happening at Wasaga beach. Through coincidence or not, we often ended up alone on these ventures. The long car ride and hours spent together on the beach as friends really helped us deepen our relationship as people, rather than as girfriend and boyfriend.

The more I got to know Tracey, the more I inevitably started falling for her. It was a few months before I got up the nerve to say anything, and they were some of the most tortuous months of my existence. After much prayer and thought I eventually let loose my feelings for her. To my surprise she actually didn’t run away and hide. The next day I approached her parents and asked for their permission to court her. With their blessing Tracey and I started our relationship “officially”.

Since then we’ve been through a lot. We’ve laughed, cried, fought and made up, and most of all, loved. Even though I spent the first year of our relationship more than an hour away in college we still managed to see each other a few times per week. Once I graduated we were able to see each other more often, and together we’ve grown. I’ve learned a lot; the true value of properly prepared Mac and Cheese, that some guys actually are more ticklish than their better halves (myself definitely included), ballet actually is a sport and whoever doesn’t think so should try a class for themselves, and that some girls actually do prefer man movies over chick flicks. The one thing that has really stood out though is the depth of the relationship that Tracey and I share. It’s a depth that, after our relationship with God, has no comparison. I love Tracey, she loves me, and neither of those things are dependent or conditional on anything else.

It wasn’t too long before I made up my mind that Tracey was the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. On April 17 I proposed. Despite her best efforts I actually did manage to surprise her, at the close of a very romantic evening.

I love Tracey more than anything else on this earth. I would die a happy man if I had nothing else in this life other than her by my side. I love you Tracey!