- Ryan Richard Jenelle Porter -
October 24, 2013
Her Story
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It was spring of 2009 and I was working as a Resident Assistant (RA) at Boise State University. I heard that a new resident had just moved in down the hall from me so I went to meet him and let him know he could come to me if there were any problems. He wasn't in his room so I told his roommates to have him come by my room whenever he got home. Later that night Ryan came by and after a few awkward moments we introduced ourselves and I welcomed him to my floor and let him know I was there if he needed me.
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Throughout the semester I continued to run into Ryan whenever I was going to or coming from the gym. We would always say hi but it was nothing more than that. At the end of the semester I held a floor meeting to discuss how to check out of the dorms. At the end of the meeting Ryan came and talked to me about my summer plans. We both realized we would be living on campus that summer and he suggested that we hang out. He got my phone number but I thought that he was just being nice and that I wouldn't see him again. A couple weeks later I received a text from Ryan asking to hangout. I kept brushing him off and making other plans but somehow we kept running into each other on campus. I finally agreed to hang out with him which ended up being one of the best decisions in my life.
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That summer we spent the majority of our time together building a friendship and making great memories. We continued to build a friendship as I studied the Bible and eventually became a disciple in December of 2009. Then, one week later Ryan moved to Portland, OR to help out the campus ministry. When he moved, I was devastated. Over the next 2 years, Ryan and I went through some extremely difficult times which ended in bitterness, anger, heartbreak and a broken friendship.
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In October of 2011 Ryan moved back to Boise, ID and we began to talk again. At first things were really awkward and painful but in December of 2011, I began to have strong feelings for Ryan again. It took me several months to finally let go of the past and admit that I was still in love with Ryan and that I strongly wanted to be with him.
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We continued to build a friendship throughout the beginning of 2012 and into the spring. We began leading a bible talk on campus together and were very involved with Boise States campus ministry. As we began to spend more time together God really put it on our hearts to date. So May 2, 2012 Ryan took me on a walk down the greenbelt at the park and asked me to be his girlfriend.
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So here we are a year later! On March 27, 2013 Ryan got down on one knee in front of our friends and family and asked me to be his wife! I am so thrilled to be on this journey with him and can only imagine what God has in store for us as we embark on this adventure as husband and wife!
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Our Story
His Story
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It all started in the spring of 2009. I walked up to the door and asked for Jenelle, who was my RA in the dorms at that time. She just wanted to meet me and put a name to a face of one of her residents. Little did we know what God had a lot in store for us. That spring we would deepen our friendship and relationship with God. June 14 I decided to commit my life to Christ. In my new found knowledge and love for Jesus I began to share it with Jenelle. We would take walks along the Greenbelt praying, laughing, joking and sharing about what we were learning in our lives. Movie nights, lunches and fun with friends filled out summer.

December rolled around, Jenelle made the decision to live for Christ and I graduated from Boise State University all in a 2 week period. A lot of changes were happening. The biggest one for me was to go out to Portland, OR to help replant a Campus Ministry for a church. This is where the storm came in our friendship, lots of miscommunications, unexpressed feelings and insecurities on my part hindered the growth of our friendship.

There was a lot of pain I caused to Jenelle but deep down I knew we would weather this storm and our friendship would remain strong, I didn't know how but I knew. About 2 years of living in Portland, I moved back to Boise, ID. I wanted things to be like they were before but the damage had been done.

I had hurt her in ways I didn't know and didn't know where to start in picking up the pieces. God stepped in and began working a miracle in our lives. We started to serve the Campus Ministry together at Boise State, planning events, praying together, and digging deep in the scriptures. As we got closer to God in our walks, our friendship began to grow and God healed the hurts.

Shortly after that we began to date each other on May 2, 2012. My insecurities were waiting there for me. Through my fear of commitment, failure and rejection it was a rocky road. Jenelle wanted to help, but I had a hard time letting her in. We slowly but surly worked on our relationship for 6 months and decided to move to Denver.
Long distance for what seemed like an eternity, 5 weeks, came to a screeching halt on December 30, 2012. Jenelle broke up with me because I wasn't doing my job in making her feel special, encouraged, being a safe place and loving her the way she needed to be loved.

This was one of the hardest times but it's when God did the most work. I wrestled with this being the end of our story. I thought, do I just pack it up and call it quits? NO, I would rather go through all the trials and storms of life with her than without her. But was it too late? Had she moved on?
A week later I asked her if we could sit down and talk (we had had no communication for this entire week). She agreed. We went to Starbucks and I began to read to her an apology I wrote expressing all the wrongs I had done, the feelings I had felt that past week and that I wasn't ready to call it quits on our relationship. She accepted my apology, forgave me and started apologizing to me (I still don't know why, but am beyond grateful). Shortly after that we got back together.
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God truly worked a lot of things out in our relationship and it seemed like it was when we first started out in our friendship. No, it was better than before. Pure fun, joy, excitement and love. There was nothing more that I wanted then to marry her. So on March 27, 2013 I asked her to do me the honor of being my Wife. And she graciously accepted.​