Fall 2011 was when they met, her second year at Nyack, his first week. It was when he introduced himself to her at the icecream social, when her heartbeat began to double at the sight of him. It was when he asked her to homecoming, when he told her that he wanted to be with her. There was never enough time together. Each conversation too deep and too interesting to let go. Every moment would last forever if they let it. February 2012 was when it was official. When they went to the movies and walked to mcdonalds together, watched anime together. Talked and prayed about having a Godly relationship. Sunk deeper into each other. It was spring when she knew she loved him. Knew she wanted to marry him, that his laugh, his love for God, his care for her made her want to pour all of herself into him. It was when she prayed to make sure what she felt was real and not a fleeting moment. It was that summer when he said I love you, at the seaport, and she asked him to repeat himself, because she couldn’t believe that it was happening. And he got scared because he thought she might not feel the same way, but the same words came out of her mouth and the tears came.

Five years passed. Five years of growing closer together, fighting together and praying together. Encouraging each other in what God called them to do, creating and learning and dreaming. Five years of struggles, of patience being tested, of questioning whether they could make it. It was hard to wait. To pray and seek God about the future and only hearing "wait." To see others make that step into marriage. She didn't realize how her trust that God would provide all of her needs and desires was going to be tested. She saw how much she needed Him for this.

She was walking to his house on a Thursday night, after work, May 4th of 2017. She had a moment where she realized that the season of five years wouldn’t last forever. That one day she wouldn’t be visiting him after work, calling him every night, because she would be with him, in their own home. That one day she would not just be Nora, she would be a wife, a mother. She felt as if she was on the very tip of the next season. The season began that night, at Cheesecake Factory, a place they grew out of but used to mean so much to them. He had given it to her then, the book that held images of the five years together, of the love that deepend and sweetened with time. He gave her the ring that held the promise of more years to come. They left the restaurant with the future and a million possibilities before them.