We're Getting Married!

I can’t say I remember the first time I met Jayden, which is odd, considering I now know him to be Mr. First Impression. All I know is that God so happened to align our schedules in such a way that we were in a class every day of freshman fall semester— Global Studies on Monday, Wednesday Friday and Living Well on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I do remember that Jayden was like the sun! He was so bright and friendly and open, and you couldn’t help but want to be around him, so I when he started inviting me to group outings— to church, to game nights and worship nights, to movies— I ended up saying yes. I was reluctant to admit I liked him, but I did know I just wanted to be around him and his big, beautiful laugh. Several worship nights, one viewing of Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, one fainting in a Catholic mass, and a star-gazing night later, I found myself sitting in an armchair in a study room on October 13th as Jayden said, quite simply and directly, “I have romantic feelings for you.” I promptly put a book over my face. “Me too, but for you!” Later, when we were deciding if we were really going to do this whole dating thing, Jayden told me, “I can’t promise you anything in this relationship except Jesus.” We’ve had some golden summers and some truly bitter trials throughout the course of our relationship, but one thing I can say is that we’ve continued in that slow journey towards Christ through highs and lows. His grace has been sufficient for us, again and again. Three years later, on October 13th, in Cincinnati’s Krohn Conservatory where we were surrounded by beautiful plants, Jayden asked me to marry him, to which (of course) I said a resounding yes. So much happened between those two Octobers. We took countless trips to Wheaton and Cincinnati to visit our families together. We spent three summers apart, though some of the highlights of our relationship were the trips I took to see Jayden at his summer internships in Speculator, NY and Colorado Springs, where we hiked trails through red rocks and ate purple ice cream. We’ve been working our way through Doctor Who practically since the moment we started dating, and we’re still not caught up! We’ve played countless board games and card games, and we’ve laughed as often as we can. As one of the freshman on my floor said of us just recently— “They just smile together, and it’s the best!” We’ve spent many evenings with our friends Tim and Gillian Swanson and Zack and Elise Brandon, and we had the delight to be in both of their weddings. Now it’s their turn to be in ours! We are so grateful for the roles all of you have played in our lives, molding us into the people that we are and supporting us in our relationship. We love you, and we can’t wait to celebrate with you on June 9th!