Jessica I spent my whole life waiting for the man whom God gave permission for me to marry. Ever since I was a little girl, I clung to the idea that God had a man in mind for me and that I shouldn't worry about chasing after boys who weren't my future husband. I knew that the man I dated would be the man I married; but as I grew older and entered my late 20s doubt crept in, and I began to worry if there ever was a man for me. I started to seek out relationships with men when I didn't ask my Heavenly Father permission to date. Finally in 2024, after years of failing miserably at 'doing it my own way' and proclaiming that I had forever given up on dating, the Holy Spirit spoke to me one night and told me to delete some dating apps that had been sitting on my phone unused for years at that point. The very next day, Hannah - a friend from Bible Study - asked if she could introduce me to her brother. I had briefly met Ben before when she invited him and his twin Grider to visit our small group (later revealed to be part of Hannah's Master Plan), and had developed a little crush on the cutie who was so strong in the Lord and so eager to share his thoughts and opinions on the book we were studying; so I easily agreed to the date. And by the end of our first date, I knew. I even told my mother that I could see myself marrying this man I had just met. When God gives you a blessing as crystal clear as this one, you don't question it! There is no room for second guessing if it's really God or if it's another desperate attempt to fill the lonely void in my heart. Ben My sister Hannah met Jess long before I did. According to her, from the first time she heard Jess speak, she thought, “She’d be good for Ben.” In that time, I briefly went out with a few co-workers, hoping that I would stumble into God’s design. It turns out that Jess was involved in online dating for similar reasons. For about a year and a half before Jess and I’s first date, Hannah occasionally mentioned a friend of hers from one of her Bible study groups, one that she thought would be “really good for” me. She did try to hide that she intended us to get together. I had been generally open to the idea, trusting Hannah’s judgement. After eighteen or so months of twists and turns from us both, Hannah invited me to her Bible study group, this time keeping it to herself that the woman she had been trying to nudge me toward would be there, too. I would only learn that after the fact. At the time, I was in one of my “step back” phases, the many short-term periods in my life where I resolved to stop looking at every new girl and then woman who crossed my path and wondering – really, hoping – that she was the one God had in mind. Of trying to overly and consciously trust in Him. As such, I was trying very hard not to notice if any of the attending women were cute or pretty. In hindsight, a tragedy, as I ruined my chance to clearly remember seeing Jess for the first time. Though, as it turns out, Hannah was thinking ahead. She spoke to the Bible study leader about Jess’s availability, and somehow found out that Jess thought I was cute. A couple of weeks later, Hannah offered me Jess’s number, with Jess’s consent. I texted her for the first time during a PD day at the school I was working at, and we messaged throughout the day. That evening I called to ask her out. We met at Cafe Del Rio, and then I got my “first time seeing her” moment. We talked for three hours, and I understood what Hannah had meant: she was the one. And the rest, they say, is history.