Nursing careers, God’s love bind couple

The nursing department at Troy University is where the love story of Alexis Danielle McCain and Hunter McCain began.

The daughter of Jayson and Alicia Mikel and the son of Ronnie and Kay McCain were both working towards their nursing degrees when they met.

The couple were married Feb. 1, 2020 at Goodnews Baptist Church in the Rose Hill community, near Andalusia. Their wedding reception was held at The Barn on Fuller Hill in the Ino Community.

Alexis McCain was born and raised in Kinston where she graduated from Kinston High School in 2014.

She is the granddaughter of Jay and Cathy Mikel of Kinston.

Hunter McCain was born and raised in Childersburg where he graduated from Childersburg High School in 2015. His parents live in Childersburg as well as his grandparents, Bill and Pat Kallenbach. 

“We met during nursing school and had most of the same classes together,” said Alexis McCain. “There were long study sessions and many study breaks we spent together throughout school.

“After almost a year, we eventually started dating at the end of second semester,” Alexis McCain said. “Hunter admitted his feelings for me but I was still very cautious because I knew the next person I dated would be for marriage. I had prayed a couple months about it before I finally accepted a date with him.

“He had been asking for a while,” she added with a smile. “God had confirmed that I should accept a date with him for me during my third semester of nursing.”

The man who is now her husband was a rock through what Alexis McCain called “one of the toughest semesters for me during nursing school.

“He kept encouraging me and pushing me that semester when things got hard and I became unsure of myself and my future,” Alexis McCain said. “He helped me get through one of the toughest semesters for me during nursing school. I’m not sure I would have made it without him.”

“It’s hard to explain but honestly the first time I saw Lexi I knew I wanted to marry her,” said Hunter McCain. “There was just something different about her, something that pulled me in and made me want to get to know everything about her.

“I believe it was just God working in our lives putting us together,” he said. “She makes me better in every aspect of life: physically, mentally and spiritually. It’s been that way through our whole journey.”

The summer before Alexis McCain graduated from Troy University the couple went with friends on a road trip to Montana. “When we made it to Glacier National Park we went on a hike down to this beautiful lake that still had some ice frozen over,” she said. “We all started to take pictures and that’s when Hunter proposed.

“Josh Brown and Tyler Sheppard, friends of ours, had come along on the road trip with us,” Alexis McCain said. “Little did I know at the time, but they were in on the planned proposal, too.

“Hunter had picked the engagement ring out himself and the whole time on the road trip he had it hidden in Josh’s suitcase in his underwear,” Alexis said with a smile.

“At the end of the trip, when Hunter got down on one knee, Josh was videoing and Tyler was taking pictures,” Alexis recalled. “They were the biggest help to one of the best days of my life.”

At both the wedding ceremony and reception following, a Bible with the couple’s names engraved on it was displayed for family and friends to highlight their favorite Bible verse and sign their name beside that verse.

Alexis McCain wore her maternal grandmother’s ring on her wedding day. “And I have kept in on since,” she said.

Savanna Bruce from Southern Style in Opp created the arrangements of greenery combined with white flowers. The wedding coordinator was Hunter McCain’s cousin from Pelham who was in nursing school at the time. “So she was super busy but always made time to work with me and answer any questions that I had,” Alexis McCain said.

After honeymooning in Jamaica, the Troy University Bachelor of Science in Nursing graduates live in Calera and both work at UAB Hospital.