Our story begins on the dating app Hinge. In the midst of our relationship searching, we longed to find another person who shared our Christian values. Lo and behold we found each other!

After matching on Hinge, Nathaniel reached out in a message saying, “We were meant to be together 😵‍💫” I responded, “And how many other girls have you said that to this week?” Though I thought that statement was crazy then, it couldn’t have been more true. We continued talking and planned our first date for January 13th at a little restaurant in Holland: Poquitos. Unfortunately, the Michigan weather had other plans. Our first date was canceled and rescheduled twice due to the astronomical amounts of snowfall that winter.

Finally, on January 23rd we were able to meet. We instantly hit it off and stayed at the restaurant so late that we were kindly asked to leave as it was after closing time and we were the only ones in the restaurant. As we walked to our cars, Nathaniel said he had a surprise for me, he reached in his car and pulled out a beautiful bouquet of flowers. I was smitten.

As the days went on we soon became inseparable, spending every free moment we had with each other.

Fast forward a year and 6 months, we found ourselves driving to GR on the way to “an event.” While in the car Nathaniel’s roommate, who planned to meet us at the event, called to say he was there and waiting. Not wanting to be late, I asked Nathaniel to find the closest spot as we pulled into the parking garage. Instead of parking on the first section, Nathaniel continued driving, and driving, and driving… until we had arrived at the very top of the parking garage. By this point I was frustrated and confused, Nathaniel reassured me that at the top of the garage there was a bridge we needed to cross. Searching for the bridge, I got out of the car. Nathaniel began talking about an apartment building in the distance. We neared the edge of the building, and I turned around to see Nathaniel down on one knee. We were not heading to an event after all, but in fact sharing in an event that would start our forever together.