After her childhood in Freehold, New Jersey, Grace went to Virginia Tech for college and then moved to Chapel Hill in 2013 to start graduate school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Keith grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, attended Calvin College, got his master's degree at the University of Michigan, and then moved to Durham in 2015 to attend medical school at Duke. Despite living 10 miles apart for almost two years, we had no friends in common. In true Millenial fashion, we met on a dating site. After exchanging messages for several days, Keith asked Grace if she wanted to go out for drinks... at which point Grace had to confess that she was actually in Malawi on a work trip. While Grace wouldn't be back for another few weeks, fortunately, Keith's hospital rotations kept him busy until her return. In May of 2017, we finally met up at Carolina Brewery in downtown Chapel Hill.

Outside of our grad/med school work, we enjoy sharing meals with friends, visiting local coffee shops and breweries, checking out events around town, hanging out with our roommates, and playing music together (despite our very different tastes). The last couple of years have seen lots of Panera "work dates," debates over whether to watch a period drama or suspense film, and trips to meet and visit each others' family and friends. Since adopting our sweet and spunky dog Ruka in March of 2019, we've added lots of walks, dog park trips, and other dog-friendly outings to our schedules. We also attend University Baptist Church, which makes it so meaningful for us to be married there.

Unbeknownst to Grace, in early 2019, Grace's mom gave Keith the engagement ring that had belonged to Grace's maternal grandmother. Keith worked with a designer to come up with a new setting for the stone. The ring arrived shortly before we left town for a trip to Spain and Portugal, and on March 27, Keith popped the question at the end of a beautiful day wandering the streets of Toledo, Spain.