We met one sunny day as Leif was working on a car, barefooted and cheeky, and Grace was just getting off from work. Then we met at a swing dance, where Leif did not ask Grace to dance, stating that he "knew she wouldn't say yes" (He was very accurate in his assumption). But we really met at a friend's dinner party where we both felt a bit shy and found that we had similar tastes for classic movies and books. In the moment, nothing seemed to have changed about our lives, but looking back now, the Lord has brought us on a gentle journey of love, and we could feel it even then.

It was an afternoon at Manini Beach, where we would go often to read and relax. I (Grace) was not expecting anything, although I did want to know when to be ready for a ring. Leif was reading to me, and I was watching the rain coming closer and closer and regretting my choice of wearing shorts. Around the time I was ready to leave and go home, Leif suggested a walk to the ocean. Then he wanted to stay until the sun peaked beneath the clouds. And so I resigned myself to getting damp and watching the sunset, never suspecting for a moment that he was going to propose to me! Since at every stage we had abhorred anything remotely cliché, sunset at the beach was the last place I would expect. But Leif remembered something I had told him early on in our acquaintance, that at every major turning point in my life, the Lord had always met me near the water. So He met us together there that evening as Leif got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife.