Masks will be required and social distancing will be encouraged. We are excited to celebrate with you this week!

Jordan and I met on June 2, 2017, at the rehearsal dinner of Brock and Elyse Christian's wedding. I was Elyse (Warrick) Christian's maid of honor and Jordan was his brother Brock's best man. Elyse had told me a few months before the wedding that Brock had a brother and she thought we would be a good fit. She informed me that he was funny, loved Jesus, and was an all-around great guy. I was quite skeptical at the time because I knew how picky I was when it came to guys but kept an open mind. After the wedding, the wedding party went bowling and had a bonfire at which I was able to get to know Jordan a little more. He asked for my phone number that evening claiming he needed a church to attend in the morning and wanted to meet up at my church in Ames. After texting back and forth for a couple of weeks, he asked if he could come to visit me in Iowa City. We went to Terry Trueblood Recreation Area in Iowa City and hiked the dirt trails along the Iowa River. It was during this two-hour hike that I started to see qualities in Jordan that I loved. I texted Jordan later that evening to ask if we could call this our first date. He agreed and the dates continued weekly as he came to visit me in Iowa City. On August 3rd, 2017, we went back to Terry Trueblood where Jordan asked me to be his girlfriend. I eagerly said yes.

We had been dating long-distance for over two years. I was living in Iowa City and working on my master's degree and Jordan was living and working as an accountant in Des Moines. We had talked seriously about marriage on several occasions and I knew an engagement was coming soon after we had gone to look at rings together. His birthday was coming up (November 17) and he said that he was going to come to visit me in Iowa City to celebrate. When I asked him what he would like to do for his birthday, he said he wanted to go on a hike because it was "National Take-A-Hike Day." When he came to visit that Saturday, he said, "Terry Trueblood isn't that far from here." It wasn't that far and I had a good feeling he was going to propose since that was where our dating relationship began. We reached the head of the trail we had walked along for our first date and I spotted a rose sitting on a log. Jordan picked it up and handed it to me. A piece of paper was tied to the rose that had a "W" drawn on one side with the word "Wonderful" written on the other side. We picked up roses that were scattered along the trail as we walked, each one having another letter and character quality written on paper attached to them. We reached the point that overlooked the Iowa River where we had sat down and talked on our first date and where he had later asked me to be his girlfriend. Jordan handed me the last rose which had a question mark. He pulled a black box out of his jacket pocket and got down on one knee and asked, "Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?" I started crying and very happily said, "Yes, yes." He had organized for my sister Sarah to take photos of our engagement and his parents hosted an engagement party for our families. We were so excited to call our grandparents and other family members to let them know of the good news. We were overjoyed to be engaged and looking forward to marriage.