It's unlikely that the West Junior High 9th-grade speech teacher knew what she was doing when she sat them next to each other and what she would ultimately be starting. Her objective was to put the loud kid (Josh) next to the well-behaved kid (Karissa) in hopes she would help manage him somehow. It worked in a way... she ended up stabbing him in the hand with a pencil to get him to stop being annoying.

In an unfortunate event that resulted in Karissa having no phone and losing most of her friends, she formed an unlikely friendship with a couple of boys who were in jazz band with her. One of them being Josh. After deciding to use Josh's leg as a pillow while she read on Fridays things began to progress from there in a decidedly less stabby manner.

Will they or won't they? Josh and Karissa dated on and off again for most of high school. It would of course be remiss to not mention the essay-stealing incident of sophomore year that caused their first breakup, but by senior year they were pretty solid!

As Josh and Karissa headed off to college they decided to break up for a final time (so they thought) as they went off to discover who they were as adults away from each other. In retrospect, God had a lot of work He needed to get done on both of their hearts away from each other before He could bring them back together.

After the split Karissa and Josh kept in very sporadic, minor contact. Until one day Josh reached out asking for prayer for his brother who was in Ecuador during a tumultuous time. This led to a conversation about Josh's now shared faith, something Karissa had been praying about for years. It all goes to show the power of prayer and waiting on God's timing.

The conversations turned back to their old relationship and Karissa and Josh realized they had never been on a proper, real date. When Josh offered neither of them was expecting it to be any different from the past, but this time it was. They talked for a long time about a lot of important things and a spark was reborn.

After Josh accidentally let it slip that he had ordered a ring it was only a matter of time until it was on Karissa's finger. During a walk that they had been going on since first dating in high school Josh finally put Karissa out of her misery and proposed.

... see you there!