In 2022, we both found ourselves working at the downtown Half Moon Outfitters with very big and very different plans to end up in very big and very different places. For both of us, Half Moon served as our buffer between stops, a source of silly, good pals and a hub of the thing we would both need when we left - gear. Cody and I only overlapped in that little store for three short weeks before he went off to hike the Continental Divide Trail and planned to follow that with a cross country move. I have to admit that I had a crush, but I also had a one way ticket to Australia. And, once I finished planning that plan, I planned to move across the globe. Lots of planning our big, fancy plans of leaving (we all know how our big, fancy plans usually go, right?). Thus, our paths parted. Thankfully, there’s a coming back part. God’s timing and tugging has everything to do with our story. Cody returned from the CDT around the time that I left for Australia; neither of us with a clue that our paths would ever cross again. Cody had his truck packed and ready to go, but didn’t… Similarly, I came back from Australia and felt pulled to stay. A quick Thanksgiving and Christmas later, we both found each other back from our adventures and equally as intrigued to get to know the other. Our story takes off from there with a 90s theme birthday party in Mac’s wood shop, where I got butterflies for the first time in my life teaching Cody how to swing dance. The next day he asked me on a date, and I said, “WAH WHAT?! ABSOLUTELY! I CANT BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING; DREAMS DO COME TRUE.” Or maybe it was something like, “Yes, that sounds wonderful!” And, wonderful came true. Life came at us with all sorts of goodies to go through in our year and a half of dating - a couple of different jobs, family coming first in every sense of the phrase, a mortgage, a move, etc. I believe God has been preparing us for this road for a long time and grown us in our faith and reliance on Him together in ways we never expected. We couldn’t be more thankful to have such wonderful community to prayerfully walk us into this next chapter!