Traci and I had known each other for years when we finally started to see each other as more than friends. The inception of the idea of us as a pair traces back to a conversation between boys one summer afternoon in 2019. Credit to Phil Lin who, being just as close to Traci as he is to me, first breathed the thought into existence. The idea gained momentum when Traci asked me to serve on Next Steps, the welcoming ministry at our church. We served side by side for weeks until one Sunday, when I wasn’t serving, my mom nudged me and asked, ‘Who’s that girl you serve with at the Next Steps table?’ ‘Oh, you must mean Traci.’ I replied. ‘Oh. I like her’. ‘Yeah, she’s pretty cool.’ ‘...I liiike her.’ As if I couldn’t get the hint, my mom decided to pull my dad into the increasingly awkward conversation. ‘Teng mm teng do, Deddi?’ (Did you hear that, Dad?) Asks my mom in Cantonese. ‘Huh?’ My dad’s hard of hearing. ‘A Traci ahhh!’ Says my mom in her indoor Cantonese voice. Everyone in the lobby heard. ‘Oh! I like her!’ Says my dad, proving that it’s true what they say about married couples being of one mind and one flesh. Little did I know that a similar conversation was taking place elsewhere between my sister-in-law Monica and Traci. ‘What do you think of Daniel!?’ ‘Uhh… Daniel? Daniel Mah?’ A tremendous start to a series of well-timed and (we would later find out) well-coordinated conversations. A similar conversation would later take place that November between my brother and me. Over Thanksgiving dessert, Greg asked me what I thought about Traci. How many hints does a guy need? Have you ever dared yourself to breathe a thought into existence? I dared… and magic happened. Man planted the seed, woman watered it, but God made it grow. An idea sprouted and eventually grew into a tree. I started to see the inner workings of Traci's mind and she began to see the beats of my heart. God was forging our paths to meet and flow as one. A watershed moment happened on February 25th, 2020 and I’m not talking about the Pandemic. It was the moment I saw my world inside her eyes- when I asked to be hers and her to be mine. By God's grace, I found my dream within a dream!