Our story begins in 2018, when MarielMichal had sworn off internet dating and was asking all her friends for set-ups. Meanwhile, Naomi visited Hannah Feldman at Isabella Freedman for Sukkahfest. At the end of the weekend, Naomi shared a car ride back to NYC with Lauren Greenberg and Aaron Steinberg-Madow, where the conversation turned to dating and set-ups. Naomi described a dream person, and Lauren and Aaron immediately thought of Mariel. They then connected the two of us. Our first date was at Thai Villa in Chelsea. Naomi was surprised and impressed to see that Mariel had biked to the date, since she lived in Brooklyn and it was a chilly, dark fall night. Mariel, for her part, was impressed and excited to hear about Naomi’s adventures in triathlon training and about her first Half Ironman, which she had completed a few months earlier. The next few months were a blur of long bike commutes from Crown Heights to Washington Heights (17 miles one-way), shabbat meals, Mariel’s sister Rayna’s wedding in Israel, the NJ State Triathlon (Mariel’s 1st, Naomi’s 7th), seeing plays (some weird, many very good), hiking and camping, and borrowing books from each other’s bookshelves… until it was June 2019 and suddenly we were merging our bookshelves into one, and making a Crown Heights apartment our own. Our adventures together continued until COVID-19 hit. At that time, we decided to foster and then adopt Alvin, who completed our family. Mariel got to know Naomi's sister Aliza, who had unfortunately been evacuated from her home in Lesotho, and soon asked for her blessing to begin planning a wedding! In November 2020, we joined together with our immediate families for a small backyard ceremony where we signed a t’naim, or betrothal document, and became legally married. Although that ceremony was as sweet as we could have imagined, we are so looking forward to our Jewish wedding, when we will get to celebrate with all of you in Harriman State Park.