It all started on Bumble on September 7, 2022. One ordinary day, I was bored and decided to give the app a try. Then I saw her. A fine, short woman with the most beautiful smile. I swiped right, and to my surprise, it said, “It’s a Match.” Our conversations were short at first. AJ told me she writes contracts for the government and that because it was the end of the fiscal year, her time was extremely limited. She shared how she had been up all night working and still had to be up again at seven the next morning. I joked and told her, “You’re all mine come October 1st.” We did not talk for almost a week; but on September 13 she messaged me wishing me a happy birthday and asked if I was doing something fun. I told her I was working. I was actually in Nashville training teachers. She replied, “That’s lame,” which made me laugh. What she did not know was that just days later I was heading to Ethiopia and Kenya for ten days. I had always joked with my colleague Rebkha that she never told me when she was going back to Ethiopia because I wanted to go find a wife. Apparently, God was listening. On September 23, while I was in Ethiopia, AJ messaged me again and asked if I was really there. When I said yes, she told me that was where she was born. That sparked something special. We started talking more often and decided to call each other through the app. When I asked if I could video call her, she said yes, but warned me her hair was not combed and she was not wearing makeup nor did she plan on doing either LOL. The Bumble app kept glitching, so I asked for her number, and before we knew it, we were on FaceTime and WhatsApp for five hours straight. Those late night conversations became our routine until we decided to meet in person on September 30. I was nervous, even after all the talking. We planned to go to my little cousin’s football game, but it was pouring rain and AJ was still working at nine thirty that night. She did not want to flake, so she invited me over instead. I was only a mile away. When I arrived, she greeted me like a bouncer, checked my ID, and took pictures of my license plate to send to her crew. We played Jenga (her favorite game), had drinks, did a music versus battle, and laughed all night. On October 16, AJ came to see me and I cooked dinner for her, which she loved. At the end of November, I traveled to Las Vegas for a conference and asked her to come with me for her birthday. She said yes without hesitation, and that sealed it for me. During the trip, I spilled oil on my suit, and AJ immediately found a cleaner and handled everything before I even returned from my meetings. We explored Hoover Dam and the Skywalk, and she nearly gave me a heart attack hiking the Grand Canyon. In January 2023, I had to be in Bessemer, Alabama the next morning, but flights were canceled. I called AJ and asked if she could ride with me. She said yes without hesitation. We drove all night, and along the way I met her family in Ozark, the people who made her who she is. From 2022 to 2025, the adventures continued. Orlando, Austin, Atlanta, New York, Memphis, Cuba, New Orleans, Miami, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, Jamaica, Barbados, and Curaçao. With every trip, AJ proved she was my person. I knew early on that she was my forever. In May 2025, I started planning to propose. AJ said her only wish was that the girls be there, so I planned it for Father’s Day, June 15, 2025. Despite her being flustered when they arrived late, on the Georgetown Waterfront in DC, I got down on one knee and asked her to be my forever love. We cannot wait to spend the rest of our lives together building, laughing, traveling, and loving since that very first swipe. It truly was a match.