My Last Year

So as many people already know Chris and I are very happily engaged. I know this isn't the path many people thought lil Nicole would take. Marrying a non-Mormon, soon to be convert outside of the temple, honestly was not the path I saw myself taking a little over a year ago. But now that I'm here I couldn't ask for a better path to have taken. While I've had my ups and downs through this whole relationship, I couldn't be happier. Chris is a wonderful man and I know that he will be a great husband and a great father to our children. And how do I know this? Because we have talked about everything since day one. We have decided how many kids we want. We have always talked through our problems. I'm not saying that either of us is perfect or that our marriage is going to be all cookies n' creme. But we have a great foundation of trust and communication, and maybe most importantly love and respect.

I'm a different person than I was last fall. I was just starting college and very much still naive to the world. Since then I have met many people in this last year that have really changed my life and I don't mean just Chris. I've met my best friend, Karyn. She has taught me that while perfection isn't possible you CAN get pretty close when you meet her. She is an amazing woman. She has a really strong testimony and while I know she thinks she's a bad Mormon, I think she is one of the best that I have ever met. She has really become one of my closest friends. I have also met Lacey who has given up everything because of something she believed in, because she because she believed in the Church and wouldn't let anything get in her way. I look up to her so much and not just because she's taller than me! She is such an inspiration in ways that she will never know. She makes me laugh and she makes me think about things that I have never thought about before. I love her and I'm extremely grateful for her and the influence she has had on my life.