Molly and I met in true millennial fashion-online dating. We matched on an app called Hinge. I was instantly attracted to how she took her faith seriously and how it was a clear priority on her profile....plus her looks definitely stunned me. She had a prompt about how she expects her person to kill all the spiders. I sent her a quippy funny message asking how she'd like me to dispose of them. She matched with me and responded quickly and said she doesn't care how you get rid of them just as long as they are gone! I was excited she responded so quickly and I messaged her back asking about her church. I usually waited for the girl to message 3 times before I would ask them out on a date, so I just needed two more messages from Molly. She responded one more time and I quickly message back again and asked another question excited about the momentum we had and how close we were to 3 messages, but then....crickets....she was gone. She ghosted me. No messages or anything for 2 weeks! I was devastated. 2 weeks later was the Sunday after Thanksgiving and I was feeling extra bold. I figured Molly would have just spent a Thanksgiving with her family and had to explain why she was still single. I figured Sunday night would be hard after all that and no one is looking forward going back to work the next day....so it was the "Golden Sunday" for someone to be swept off their feet. So a couple days before this "golden Sunday" I spent so much time crafting the perfect message to send her. This is called a double text, when someone doesn't respond to you on a dating app and you sent another message, it has about a 0.01% success rate...a true hail mary. But I sent my perfect message to her when it was exactly 8pm on Golden Sunday. "Hey Molly, you seem like the real deal. You seem really kind and genuine and I really appreciate how you prioritize your faith! I'd love to get to know you more! Can I take you out for drinks? Trust me I'm even better in person (laugh emoji)" I did my best not to get my hopes up as I knew double texting never worked. But much to my shock she replied and she wanted to get drinks! I couldn't believe it!! The double text, hail mary worked?! We went to Thirsty Lion for our first date and I had a bad cold and cough but I knew I couldn't miss this date for anything! I was so nervous, the most nervous I'd ever been for a date. But the date went really well! Molly was so sweet, kind and genuine, ....we had great conversation; she really is the real deal. I went home that night just hoping/praying there would be a second date. And apparently she had a great time too as there was a second date and many more to come :)

I did not love online dating, but I got on Hinge whenever I had little hopeful bursts of energy. Well, one day, I got a hopeful burst of energy! Nate and I messaged back and forth a couple times. He seemed super cool, he said he would happily dispose of spiders for me, AND he loved Jesus!!! Everyone does online dating differently, and I prefer to meet in real life ASAP and skip the back and forth messaging with strangers (lol). My little hopeful burst of online dating energy faded before Nate asked me to get a drink, and as Nate likes to say, I “ghosted” him. Haha. I have a different definition of ghosting, but I won’t get into that here lol! ANYWAY, Nate messaged me a sweet message one night two weeks later asking me to get drinks, and I said yes!! He chose a place super close to where I was living and planned the whole thing to make it easy on me. <3 Nate showed up to our first date with his straight-from-Hawaii-tan – so handsome!! He was sooooo cool calm and collected. How does he do that?? He asked me lots of thoughtful questions. He definitely loved Jesus. He walked me to my car and did ALL the gentlemanly things. Nate texted me after asking if I’d want to go on a second date, and I was 100% sure I wanted to see him again. For our second date, Nate planned a SURPRISE DATE for me!!! Date number 2! It was the sweetest most thoughtful second date ever. I remember thinking “is this guy forreal??” I soon learned that he, in fact, was forreal. Nate is actually THE VERY BEST. So of course, we fell in love, and I can’t believe I get to marry him! So thankful to God for how much he loves us and how beautifully he has prepared us to love each other. <3