We're getting married!

We met in 2011 volunteering at the OLGC Open House. Natalie was a 7th grader and Joel was a 6th grader that just transferred to the school. There was definitely hearts in both of our eyes. We of course passed notes between classes and played soccer on the blacktop. Joel was infamous for hitting girls he liked in the head with the soccer ball. Let's just say Natalie was hit quite a few times. We went on to high school and kept in close touch, continually being drawn back to one another. Eventually January 8th, 2016 Joel asked Natalie to be his girlfriend only once his dad was in the driveway waiting to pick him up. As you could gather Joel takes his sweet time with these things. Joel went to Catholic Central and Natalie went to Father Gabriel Richard. A total of 7 homecomings and proms. We even went on our senior trips together with our families. Side note, a year into dating our parents became BFFs, what a dynamic! Different from the average teenagers, Joel and Natalie were inseparable and spent almost everyday together. We continued to college together at University of Detroit Mercy where Joel played collegiate soccer and Natalie studied business. We came home almost every weekend to have Sunday dinner with our parents. We lived in Ferndale, close to school, through the pandemic and in 2022 Natalie bought a condo in Novi where we currently live. We managed to grow our family by two fur babies through those years. We have Hank, our Frenchton, who is 4 years old and Hazel, our Frenchie, who is 2 years old. Now 14 years since meeting and 9 years of dating, we are finally getting married! It's about time! Life has given us our fair share of ups and downs, but we have never given up on each other. So, cheers to officially signing off on the vows we have always chosen and a lifetime of happiness and love.