Mr. & Mrs. Sherman

By November 2018, with over a year and a half of kept promises to prioritize one another and spend face-to-face quality time on a weekly basis, these two felt a deep connection and desire to merge their lives and purposes. Both have actively served in music ministry leadership and have backgrounds in urban education giving back to the community. Isiah has taught band students, is Minister of Music at church, and is a skilled Music Instrument Repair Technician for a school district. LaNesha is a worship artist and a licensed professional counselor. During the summer of 2018, Isiah commuted to Dallas so they could benefit from a ten-week, pre-marital counseling couples class at Concord Church led by facilitator couple Darrell and Kayla Young with several guest presenters covering financial planning, communication, and intimacy among other great topics. The Senior Pastor Dr. Bryan L. Carter and wife Lady Stephanie Carter kicked off the starting weekend with a couples conference complete with an all-white party and a couples panel sharing the hills and valleys of marriage. Overall, it was a challenging season of growth, development, and self-evaluation but they made it to graduation with a certificate to prove it. So, Isiah invited LaNesha to spend Thanksgiving with his family in Shreveport, Louisiana. He suggested they go out for midnight breakfast. When they arrived at The Boardwalk, he slowly parked his SUV and went around to escort her out of the vehicle. Isiah led her past a few restaurants, up a set of steps to an open platform encircled by tall, romantic, stone pillars contrasting against the dark sky. There, under the moonlight and stars with colorful reflections dancing across the waves of the Red River, Isiah began telling LaNesha how he felt about her as silent tears trickled down her face. Then, just before midnight, he gently grasped her left hand, got down on one knee, unveiled a ring box, and called her by name asking "Will you marry me?" She said YES!

A trusted, mutual friend and novelist named Korey Davis with an outgoing personality and a huge sense of humor, had just gotten married on Valentine's Day. He issued a challenge to his network of friends and frat brothers to: 1) believe in love, 2) answer a series of questions about relationships in a closed invitation-only, social media group, and 3) allow him to prescreen inquiries as a matchmaker. Several of us joked that we would probably end up as characters in his next best-selling book but we went along with this experiment anyway. Isiah, however, prayerfully decided to participate and his sincere responses caught LaNesha's attention to her surprise. She asked Korey about Isiah (known to her only as "Shreveport") but then she hesitated to follow up with her birthday approaching. Instead, she took time to focus, reflect, and pray about the future. If she only knew what was happening behind the scenes! Eventually, Isiah reached out to her. They formed a friendship bond that grew quickly with daily video calls, realizing their values and goals were aligned. Isiah was very intentional and attentive. For their first date, he drove from Shreveport, Lousiana to Dallas, Texas to meet her for lunch at Olive Garden and returned home the same afternoon. Afterwards, he shipped her a bouquet of flowers with a special note. This would be the first of many turnaround trips for both of them including dates at the halfway mark in Tyler, Texas. He proved to be a gentleman and a man of faith. They met each others' families. After six months, LaNesha invited mentors and friends to a Meet & Greet to celebrate his birthday with a specialty cake by Celebrity Baker 'Cake Daddy' before they attended the State Fair Classic football game between two HBCUs - Grambling State University (where Isiah once majored in music and played trombone in marching band) AND Prairie View A&M University (where she obtained a graduate degree in counseling). That day, their relationship went public. The rest is history.