"You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and new wine abound." -Psalms 4:7

I started catching feelings for Feyi in 2016. It was mad awkward because we weren't legit friends at this point. I remember asking myself what I liked about him because I didn't know him that well. I honestly couldn't convince myself to take it seriously because it didn't make sense to me so I decided to let it pass like all my previous crushes. Little did I know the convincing I needed was coming later lol. During this time, we were friends on IG and FB but barely interacted with each other. I caught myself getting pressed over little things with Feyi and I wasn't having it lol so I figured it was time to talk to my mentors about it (shoutout to Korede, Jimmy, Uncle George, and Ife). The general consensus was pray about it....go figure lol. As time passed, I found myself still liking this man I barely knew, but in 2017 I felt the Lord tell me very clearly, "Feyi is your husband". At this point I was like; I'm either so pressed that I think God is telling me this, or God is REALLY talking and I know who my husband will be. Both very scary to me but with the help of my people, I was able to navigate this. My main objective during this period of time was to treat Feyi like another friend because until he asked me out, that's all he was. We actually started a real friendship in 2017 when we both decided to serve with AmeriCorps and that's where all the pieces started coming together. Many confirmations later Many roadblocks later Many days later (90 days specifically #IYKYK) Many dates later Many moments later Many laughs later And I can truly say I wouldn't change our story one bit. It took Feyi almost 3 years to get the memo, but God is so strategic and His hand in this has made Feyi worth the wait. I am so honored God chose me to love His son and I can't wait to continue our forever thang! It took God speaking to us separately for me to make it out of the friend zone and boy am I glad that ain't my story no mo. Can I get an AMEN?!

There's a Yoruba proverb that says "What you are looking for in a far away town (Sokoto), is in your pocket (sokoto). This perfectly sums up our story. In the same way that God formed Eve right under Adam's nose as he was asleep that's the same way that God arranged and packaged "My P.A." for me and I didn't realize it. When God first spoke to me about the woman that I would marry in Jan 2016. I didn't realize that it was Fisayo, because I didn't have much of a relationship with her at that time. I was reading in Genesis 29 about how Jacob found his wife, particularly verses 9-10 that say "she was a shepherdess" and "He went up and helped her". This mutual love and commitment of taking care of our Father's sheep and serving eachother selflessly is what has built and established our union: -From September 2014 when I first met her as I helped her pack up the media equipment after Proclaim in Maryland (a regional event that our campus ministry, Bethel Campus Fellowship (BCF), hosts annually) -To October 2016 when I was soliciting her assistance and feedback for emails that needed to be sent and a promo video that I shot and recorded for the Proclaim event in Georgia. -To Summer 2017 when we both individually decided to participate in a year of service with AmeriCorps as tutors in NJ and CT respectively. During this time we became legit friends. These moments and more were things that God brought to my mind when I FIRST began to consider the possibility of pursuing a romantic relationship with Fisayo in February 2019. It was our second straight year of driving together to BCF Conference with our friends that lived in the NJ area. I can't say what sparked the idea, but up until that moment I had been sleeping on her, and it was time to wake up. I realized that I wanted to have that enjoyable weekend with Fisayo forever. So after 5 months of prayerful consideration, getting confirmations and Godly counsel, I asked her out and it's been #ForeverJoy since!

You can check out a video here where we talk about our full story : ) https://youtu.be/aHPjKoZmj9w

Fisayo has always mentioned that she wanted two things for her proposal: 1. An intimate gathering of family & close friends. 2. A surprise proposal during a game night. Due to COVID, and the fact that I had gotten injured in October, my options were limited in terms of trying to plan an inconspicuous game night. So I decided (thanks to Korede) to tap into my creative side and plan a "Game Night" themed proposal! Here was the setup, Fisayo was expecting me to come to town on Monday, December 28th because I had a followup appointment with my surgeon on December 29th. But I actually secretly booked a flight to arrive in Maryland on Saturday, December 26th and planned the proposal to take place on Sunday, December 27th after church. I coordinated with Korede to get Fisayo out of the house for the weekend (major shoutout to her) and was able to comfortably set everything up perfectly on Sunday morning with help from my friends Emem, Marie, and Ayo. Also HUGE shoutout to my brother Mayowa who helped to capture the moment and make it a memorable one! She walked right into the perfect proposal, and of course she said....."L.O.L" and then gave me a "yes". #ForeverJoy2021