'Bringing Up Bates' Star Engaged After Strict Christian Courtship; Viewers to See Elaborate Surprise in Season 2 Premiere
After a strict Christian courtship to prevent yielding to temptation, evangelical Christian reality star Michaela, of the UPtv series "Bringing Up Bates" got engaged to her boyfriend Brandon Keilen in a surprising and elaborate affair in Virginia Saturday.
The engagement took place in Great Falls where Brandon left seven clues for Michaela to discover throughout the area. At the end, he proposed to his girlfriend, who immediately said "yes". Now the happy couple is busy planning a wedding, and fans of the reality series about the large evangelical Christian family will get to see the entire proposal when the show begins airing in June.
Throughout the courtship Michaela and Brandon were never alone together but always with a chaperone to prevent them from yielding to physical temptation. Throughout the first season of the family's reality series, viewers watched as they grew closer together and included their family in the relationship.
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Michaela's father, Gil, and mother Kelly Jo, told the cameras that they "set general parameters" for their children's relationships and urge them to keep Jesus Christ at the center. While the courting couples can exchange hugs, Gil and Kelly Jo encourage them to save their first kiss for their wedding, and as they explained, kissing in private can lead to greater temptation.
In one particular episode, however, Gil and Kelly Jo revealed that they did not save their first kiss for their wedding. Michaela's brother Zach and his wife Whitney also did not save their kiss for their wedding day. Whitney and Zach took the opportunity to warn their siblings against temptation and encouraged them to remain pure for the wedding ceremony.
According to Kelly Jo's blog, Michaela and Brandon spent a great deal of time visiting one another while Brandon was in college. Brandon often sent Michaela care packages filled with presents such as flowers, DVDs of photos and songs he wrote to celebrate their time together. In September, he turned 25, and Kelly Jo gave thanks to a "wonderful, Godly young man that won our daughter's heart!"
Gil and Kelly Jo spoke with The Christian Post about their decision to allow cameras into their lives and said that they prayed together, with their 19 children, before going ahead with the series.
"It is something that we prayed about as a family for a while when we were first approached, and it was a goal of ours to be involved in ministry in some way and we felt like this is a way we could encourage other families. And so, we thought this would be a way to encourage families not to give up, to put your priorities where they need to be. Our priorities are God, family, and our relationships," Kelly Jo told CP in December.
The second season premiere of "Bringing Up Bates" will feature Michaela's engagement as well as the birth of her sister Alyssa's first baby, Allie Jane. It will air on June 4 on UPtv, a family network.
