Haley and Paul met through participation in the Leadership for Five Seasons program; a 10-month leadership development program sponsored by the Cedar Rapids Economic Alliance. Paul applied the year prior to the program but wasn't accepted. Haley is forever grateful that he applied again! It was "Entrepreneur Day" when the couple first felt a spark. They met for coffee and talked about life, leadership, and their dreams. The rest is history!

Since February of 2020, I knew I was going to propose, it was more of a matter of “When”, not “If”. When the pandemic hit, everything closed for long periods of time, taking away the only way I stayed half way in shape; the gym. As most of you know, Haley is an avid runner, and a really good one! She has run a bunch of marathons. She brought up the idea of getting me to go on some runs with her. To be honest, I cannot remember a time when I ran more than a mile and a half and that was the Turkey Trot my Senior year of high school. We started off slow and steady, getting me to two miles, then three, five, and by the end of two months, I was running six mile routes, still in basketball shoes. The pain! Somehow, Haley convinced me to run a half marathon in June of 2020, easily one of the coolest things we have done together, I was hooked. For Haley to be so patient, encouraging, supportive, and positive with me in my training, was such a BLESSING. So, when it came to the 'how' in our proposal, it just made too much sense to propose doing one activity that brought so much joy to our relationship. One of our favorite loops is a quick and easy four miler, the “HyVee Loop” due to the fact that we run by HyVee grocery store right after the first mile. For the Charlevoix Marathon, we stopped running together. I was training for the half, Haley for the full, different paces and distances. On May 5th, I definitely caused suspicion by convincing Haley to run our favorite loop at the same pace, to enjoy time together during the middle of a hectic week. Little did she know! After runs, we go on our front stoop, take a selfie, holding the amount of miles up that we ran. But this time, I set my phone to record, got down on one knee and I was able to get out the words, “You’ve been God’s greatest gift….” let the sobbing ensue! She of course said, YES! (or I wouldn’t be writing this) We ended the evening with calls to family and a lovely dinner out.