Francine and Joseph met in 1986, during the Summer in Belgium. Joseph had arrived in Brussels since 1980, to study at Louvain-La-Neuve and Francine was sent to a Catholic Boarding School in Herve, in the Province of Liege in 1982. When she finished High School, one day with her cousin, while they were waiting for their train to Waterloo, they met a stranger in the Gare Centrale in Brussels, who invited them to dinner at his cousin’s family apartment in Brussels and they decided to accept, out of a dare. The night they went, the evening was quite interesting because the cousin, Joseph, arrived while they were eating; though he ate with them, he didn’t seem to be interested in joining the conversation. To their surprise, he called them the following day, and the day after. Little by little, Francine’s cousin started to be annoyed, while Joseph and Francine could spend hours and hours on the phone. Naturally this led to their first date on August 20th, 1986, a la Grand Place in Brussels. They kept exploring all the boutiques and restaurants around Rue Neuve in Brussels during the whole summer. Then came the time to part their ways as Francine was starting her studies in Law school in Louvain-La-Neuve, while Joseph was switching from Architecture at Louvain-La-Neuve to Civil Engineering at the University of Liege. Around a year or so after they met, Joseph asked Francine for marriage. They got engaged in 1988 with only Papa Joseph Kasende and Papa Jean-Marcel Kasongo present with them in Belgium. According to the Zairean (now Congolese) culture, their families initiated the traditional wedding on January 29th,1991 in Kinshasa; but when they went to gather documents to celebrate their civil wedding in Belgium, they were told that, according to the Belgian civil Law, a monogamous Zairean traditional wedding is already considered to be a civil wedding. What a shock! They felt as if they stole their wedding day. So, they started planning for the catholic wedding. The plan was to have all 4 parents present. However, after trying for several years to have their whole family, and especially after the death of Maman Agnes Kaswing, Francine’s Mom, they resorted to get married by themselves in Liege, Belgium on September 27th,1996. God has blessed us with Gaetan-Alexandre, Francesca-Aline, Marie-Ange, born in Belgium; and Amandine-Veronique, Jean-Marcel and Grace Marie-Aimee born in the US. Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to our first-born twins in February 1992 and our beloved Joseph Jr, our first American baby who went to the Lord on January 9th,2023. This loss, associated with so many challenges, devastated our couple, almost leading us to the divorce. We thank God for preserving our marriage, and for keeping us together all these years. So, when we realized that this year will be the 30th Anniversary of our religious wedding, we decided to thank God and renew our vows in the presence of all the wonderful people we call family and friends. It will be an honor and our privilege to celebrate with you!