D: September 2023. Singles Retreat. Melbourne, FL. I was helping Emily Vogel unload the AV equipment for the retreat. Khalid approached us in full work-mode, unfazed by my beauty to even say hello! In his defense, they were on a time crunch, so Emily introduced us, we exchanged hellos and went on our merry way. A group of us went out for dinner after the worship night, way past my bedtime, but Khalid had energy for days. He was quite animated and extroverted whereas my social capacity ran out. Nevertheless, we had a short but pleasant conversation. The following night at the dance party, we traded personalities: Khalid was sitting on the side of the stage by himself, and I was in full swing, ready to hit the dance floor. In an effort to cheer him up, I ran up to him and started “crumping” (a hip-hop dance style) and his face went from confused to laughter and then enjoyment! It was a nice moment but that was only the beginning. Our next interaction in October 2023 made a bit of a dent. It was Caribbean Missions Sunday at the Broward Church and Khalid traveled from Orlando to play the steel pan drum for the worship, and I sang. In our first greeting I yelled “DJ Cal-led”, he rolled his eyes and I immediately thought that was the end of our friendship that never began. Later that morning, he volunteered to pray for the worship team and I remember just feeling blessed by his words. After the service, we had a quick interaction and he mentioned “You just light up the room when you walk in." My response: “How! You don’t even know me!"

K: After our time together in Broward, I left really encouraged and wanted to reach out. After getting her number from Jahson (maybe, perhaps, idk), I sent her a message that she describes as "very encouraging" (screenshot in our gallery). I honestly didn't expect to hear from her so soon, but she replied about 20 minutes later (only because she reread the message 30 times). We stayed in touch over the holidays via social media but nothing materialized until later. “We’re just friends, your honor—ignore the DMs”. March 2024. She was flying to Broward from Minnesota to be part of her mom’s baptism. I was planning the Singles conference in California later that year and I wanted to ask her to join our music team. En route to Broward, we got on FaceTime to chat but only spent about 10 minutes talking about the conference, and about 3 hours talking about everything else in our lives. She even introduced me to her dad when he came to pick her up! After sharing about the victory of her mom getting baptized, we FaceTimed nearly every evening for a month and talked about our days and work lives. Though we were just being friendly, our playful chats turned into something more. Easter Weekend. Broward was hosting a worship concert and Dominique planned to fly in. She insisted on me coming to spend time with her, and after moving around my schedule, I was able to come down. We saw each other for the first time after all the months of texting, calling and FaceTiming. We sang, danced, and praised God together with our brothers and sisters. After the concert, we went out to eat with some friends and I decided to pay for her dinner (she really appreciated that). Upon leaving, we hugged goodbye (twice, actually) and that definitely set off some bells in my head about how we felt towards each other. The next day, we set up time to go to Las Olas Beach, hang out and talk some more. From that moment, my heart told me that we could be more than just friends…

K: For the record, she told me she liked me first. She told me that to continue having deeper conversations, I needed to talk to her best friend Audrey and husband Todd. The idea of dating was a growing thought, but I had to contend with the 1200-mile distance between Minnesota and Florida. Neither of us had been in a long-distance relationship, and the thought made me nervous. Initially, we planned a weekend together with our friends in Orlando for May 2024, and I planned to make the leap to dating in July. D: May I step in here? K: Sure. D: I adore this man, but if he didn’t make a move at this point, he was gon have to get to steppin. K: Thank you for your commentary. Where was I?… Oh yes. After talking with her best friend, she gave me a lot of wisdom and courage to move forward with starting our relationship in May. They played a big part in our beginnings and have continued to help us throughout our whole relationship. When she arrived in Orlando and saw her that first day, I knew that this would be the weekend. We went on a double date with Marshall & Shawn Mead. I had planned to ask her out the next day at Universal Studios, but after the date I decided I would ask her to be my girlfriend that night. AND SHE SAID YES! A year and a half passed with many significant moments: traveling together (California, New York, Virgin Islands), her moving to Orlando, both changing jobs, falling in love, playing music together. February 1, 2026: a day we’ll never forget. With lots of prayer and support, I made one of the biggest decisions in my life and asked her to marry me! And once again, SHE SAID YES! We would not have made it this far without the love, prayer and support of our families, friends, and our church communities. Our relationship is a testament to the goodness of God and our wedding is a celebration of the people that have given so much to us. We would not be here without you, and we thank God for you.