Derek and Emma first met online (how else do you meet someone in the middle of a pandemic, living states apart?). They matched, quickly took it off the dating app, and had their first virtual “date” on May 8, 2020. They talked late into the night for 6 hours straight and both left the conversation knowing this was truly something special. It was a whirlwind romance; a love-at-first-sight kind of story (cue all the mushy-gushy clichés). “When you know, you know,” had never rang more true. Derek told his friend the next morning, “I think I just fell in love with the woman I'm going to marry.” Emma couldn’t sleep that night, so she stayed up all night praying/journaling and barely had an appetite the following morning. COVID? Love-sickness? You can decide. They traveled back and forth between Nebraska and Colorado for the next 5 months. With each visit, they grew more and more in love. They hiked, camped, paddle-boarded, swam in lakes & oceans, jumped in freezing cold mountain streams, cooked delicious meals, drank local hoppy IPAs and high-end wines, met each other’s friends & family, roadtripped, explored museums, sang loudly (and off-key), worked out, discussed books and current events, went to church, and read the Bible and prayed together. In the midst of all the hardship and uncertainty that 2020 brought - natural disasters, political unrest, racial tensions, global pandemic - these times together brought overflowing heaps of joy, peace, and hope. God, in all His goodness and faithfulness, was so clearly present in each and every moment. Derek moved to Fort Collins, CO on September 15th, 2020. He landed a job as a chiropractor at a local integrative health clinic and Emma continued her work as a family medicine physician assistant (PA). On October 1st, 2020 during a beautiful hike in Estes Park on their first day off together, he asked her to marry him. She said yes, and it was the easiest, fastest, and greatest decision of her life.