we're getting married!

Weeks before Kathryn and I met, my roommate, Brenton, asked if it would be alright if his NewLife group could meet at the house. I told him that I would think about it because I thought that he meant his middle school group that he helped lead; I wasn't too keen on having middle schoolers over to my house. I felt, however, that I should say yes despite my misgivings (which I think was a prompting from the Lord). I must say that I am very happy that I said yes to that request. The first day that the group was to meet was on September 17th, 2018 (which happened to be the night that the Seahawks were playing Monday Night Football). Somehow this was the first time that I met Kathryn. We were only one grade apart in High School, and we had many friends in common; she even worked at the restaurant that my family liked to go to! How we had never met before then is beyond me. After about a month, I finally plucked up the courage (and with some nudging from Brenton) I finally asked her to go on a date. The rest, as they say, is history.

Having grown up on island together one year apart, we could have been high school sweethearts, like all four of Josh's older siblings and their spouses... It only took us a decade. Thanks to Brenton -my lifelong friend & Josh’s roommate- agreeing to host group, Josh and I met and it was 'helllo' at first sight. A couple weeks in, there was ̶n̶o̶ ̶ definite collusion between Brenton and Coleen, on top of numerous mutual people in our lives (including our officiant, Bill McGonagle) telling both of us how great the other was and what a great match we would make. Lucky for me, Josh seemed to agree and subsequently asked if I’d be interested in going on a hike with him. I played it cool and said “yes” before he could complete that question. Come to find out, right before we met, we had both started jobs a block apart, so seeing each other was made almost too easy. It only took one date (& some flowers) for Josh to sweep me off my feet & only a couple more for me to realize I never wanted to date anyone but him ever again.

We arrived in Paris the previous day, and after an adventurous day where we couldn't access our hotel rooms for several hours we were exhausted (It's a whole story unto itself). We went to bed early, and managed to each get about 15 hours of sleep. I woke up around 7, and I went to her room to check if she was awake only to find that she was way ahead of me, and almost ready to head out; bright eyed and bushy tailed, we got some coffee and croissants from the hotel. I suggested that we enjoy our small meal up on the roof. Unbeknownst to her, I had wrapped my camera strap around my hand in such a way as she wouldn't notice that I was holding the ring box in my hand (worked like a charm). Up on the roof, with a panorama of Paris before us, I couldn't think of a better place to propose to Kathryn, and I was too impatient to wait any longer. With love songs playing on the roof's sound system (I wish I could say I planned that, but it was a happy happenstance), I pushed my chair to one side, dropped on one knee, and said, "Will you marry me?"

Josh had been planning a trip to Europe with his family long before we met, so you can imagine how exciting it was to suddenly be included in those plans! Based on our conversations over the course of 8 months, I was aware this trip would be the most likely & ideal proposal location. He had teased that the lighting may be too dark for any photos, so I was envisioning sometime after dinner. After 13+ hours of travel to get to France, we were so jet-lagged that we missed that first dinner entirely. So I awoke the following morning ready to make up for lost time; oblivious to the fact that Josh too, intended to waste no time. He suggested we start the day with our coffee on the rooftop, the view from which had floored us upon arrival. The glass elevator opens its doors to the most spectacular shot of the Eiffel tower. So there we were on the roof, overlooking the City of Love; when to my complete surprise, Josh pushed the chair aside and popped the question! The rest is a happy blur, but I’m pretty sure God winked, a flock of doves formed our initials in the sky, Ed Sheeran materialized out of the speakers, and all of France cheered. & As you might guess... I definitely said yes.