Our Story

We were 100 miles away. Allie was in a big city and I (John) was in a rural town by a river. Allie’s best friend had suggested that she try Upward after she had told her about her failed experiences on other dating apps. I had rejoined Upward in hopes to find the one this time. I don’t even remember swiping right on Allie, but she swiped right on me and sent me a message that just said “Hi John”. We talked for a few days on the app, just small talk about our likes and dislikes and hobbies and then I asked her for her Snap. We talked back and forth for a few weeks and finally moved to the next step, Video Calls! Our first video call was 3 hours long, our second call was 6 hours long! Then we had our first in person date, at church! Allie loves to describe the hug we shared like the hug she had always been waiting for! After that date I just had a peace that she was the one! Within 6 months we were engaged and then Allie moved down closer to me and then in 4 months we got married!

People may think that is a quick timeline, and before meeting Allie I would have agreed with you. It is also worth mentioning that Allie is 8 years older than I am. People may think that’s a huge age gap too. I might have agreed with you on that as well. But let me tell you about the Godly peace I had during all of this! I remember praying to God and asking when I could propose. We met in October of 2022 and God told me to wait until May or June of 2023. I had this peace come over me that I really can’t explain, that even though my flesh was trying to throw up red flags like the timeline and the age gap, the peace was overpowering all of that! And after we were engaged we talked about waiting a whole year before getting married, But we felt that God was telling us to do it sooner, so we got married in September of 2023! When people say “when you know you know” I never truly knew what that was like until I met Allie!

One of the early conversations we had already started talking about how many kids we wanted, I wanted 2 and she wanted 4 so we compromised at 4! All joking aside we were already starting to talk about how we would raise our 4 kids, and what their names were gonna be! We had both reached a point in our lives where we didn’t have time for small talk, we wanted to know if we were gonna work together! So we dove right into the deep stuff! We dove into our faith and what our core beliefs were. We both still grow in our faith in each other! I can say I admire Allie’s faith everyday, how on fire she is for Jesus, makes me want to grow closer to God! And Allie would tell you that because of my faith that she has grown leaps and bounds in her walk with Christ!

We are now in the middle of our second year of marriage and I can say without a doubt in my heart that I love Allie more and more every day and I love that we get to walk with Christ together and serve at our church together! We are about to start a youth ministry at our church and I feel a strong calling to help youth find their relationship with Jesus! I have a heart for youth and Allie is right by my side helping me in my calling.

I hope that this has helped encourage you that there is someone out there and to look for the peace of God in a relationship, forget about worldly timelines and focus on who God has for you!