After being hired at the end of year 2018, it became apparent to me that it was time to reopen my Adventist online-dating profile. One day, while browsing the dating site, I came across a profile that caught my attention, she wrote about her musical background and the importance of God in her life. Of course, she looked attractive in her picture, her face was beautiful, and her skin smooth. I sent her a message introducing myself and sharing some things about me. Later, she answered and a conversation started, we talked about some general interests and we discovered what we had in common. We soon moved the conversation to WhatsApp, and eventually, we moved from text messages to phone calls, and then to video calls. It was on our first video call that I learned that she is actually very pretty in reality and not only in pictures. After a number of weeks of sustained communication, I realized it was time to suggest we met in person. We made some plans for her spring break for us to meet up and explore together the city of Toronto. The anticipated day came for us to meet, she started to drive up and later sent me a picture of the Peace bridge, the border of the U.S. and Canada, which built up excitement. The designated place of meeting was a Tim Hortons located close to the North-east corner of High Park in Toronto. On the way to meet her I had time to savor the moment, being exited about the possibilities, but also just happy to have a good time. Upon arrival, I opened the door of the coffee shop, gazed around the small space, and found to my left, reclined on a stool, Laura looking down as if in thought. She looked at me, we said hi and gave each other a hug. I listened to how her travel had gone while I looked at her, and took in a mental picture of the lovely girl that was in front of me. We came out, and we made our way to the place she had booked for her to check in. In that way, Laura and I began a journey that has taken us to this moment of our lives.

On September 28, we were driving south in beautiful Ontario to celebrate six months of dating on our formal date. Although it was a surprise, I had it all figured out. We were going to Toronto, changing into our fancy clothes that evening and going out for dinner at a nice restaurant. This I firmly believed until we pulled into a park, stopped by a lake, and Ivan began unloading a canoe from a rack. To all my questions, Ivan just calmly explained that we were going to the location of our formal date. He then proceeded to unload our belongings from the car into the canoe, and I along with him in a deep state of confusion. In went the sleeping bags, clothes bags, and food. At some point I stopped him insisting that he tell me what's going on. “We’re going camping.” he said. I was shocked, yet a bit excited. When we arrived at the beautiful camp site, we got everything unloaded, and I set up my tent that I packed “just in case.” He then gave me very specific instructions to stay in my tent until he had set up for dinner. While he prepared dinner, I fancied up as much as I could. As I sat inside my tent—now getting quite dark—I started to feel a sense of how special these moments were, and I tried to imagine what he meant by “setting up for dinner.” Finally the moment came when he walked over to my tent and said everything was ready. I stepped out of my tent and was completely blown away. It was purely elegant, complete with beautiful lights, dishes, flowers, delicious food, and a cute little table and chairs with cloth tablecloth and napkins folded into hearts. Even with all of this, I shoved away the obvious thoughts that he’s about to propose. I just thought, “Wow, this is an incredible way to celebrate six months of dating! How romantic! I seriously have THE BEST BOYFRIEND EVER.” All of that was obviously true, yet the moment was amplified when after dinner he got down on one knee and asked, “Laura, will you marry me?” My response? “Absolutely, yes!”