We met online and our first interactions gave no indication of what we'd become to each other. Cara asked about some places worth checking out in Kristopher's neighborhood and Kristopher promptly responded with a list of five places. There was no invitation to check those things out together. Kristopher thought Cara was just curious about the neighborhood. Somehow, we made it to a first date at Little Bad Wolf in Andersonville. It was a good first date. So good, that at the end of it Kristopher said, "I'd do this again." The second date took place a week later in Kristopher's neighborhood. This date also went well. We had intimate conversations about family, faith, love. We ended up taking a night walk at the beach. It was a beautiful June night: the stars were out, a nice summer breeze was blowing, and the beach was completely empty except for Cara and Kristopher. Cara leaned toward Kristopher expectantly and he said, "So this is the beach." She promptly grabbed a Lyft home and didn't expect to see him again. Miraculously, we made it to a third date and that's where things really started clicking.

Our third, fourth, and fifth dates came along and we were both realizing how special this was. We both felt such a calm excitement around the other. We were bursting with joy and feeling a profound sense of rightness. We were able to be our full selves around each other, making up silly songs on the fly together or talking through a frustrating day. Things almost seemed too good. There was a brief period where Cara became convinced that Kristopher might, in fact, be a robot perfectly programmed to love her. (He even saw her sensitivity as a good thing!) A weekend trip to Saugatuck broke robot concerns but deepened our knowledge of how right we were for each other. This rejuvenating and joyful weekend away together was full of glamping, amazing meals, conversations and walks, and hitch hiking. We knew we were good for each other. Both of us started to wonder if this was "it." Cara took Kristopher up to Traverse City to meet her family. Although he had no doubts about Cara, Kristopher was quite worried about spending a week with Cara's family. His worries quickly abated as he found family in the Binders. The Binder's house on Old Mission Peninsula felt like home to Kristopher. The Binders loved how kind and bright he was and saw how Cara was able to be her full (weird) self with him. Cara met Kristopher's family in waves. His brother and sister-in-law, then his parents, and then his sister, brother-in-law, and nephew. At each meeting, the family remarked to Kristopher how much they loved Cara, how natural things felt with her, and how they didn't remember seeing him this happy. They spent an amazing Thanksgiving together in LA where Cara felt right at home and at peace around the Kopchick Thanksgiving table. In November, knowing we had found our life's love, we wanted to find a place that would be uniquely ours. We found a beautiful coach house in Andersonville. Much like our sense of rightness with each other, we knew this house would be our first home together.

Cara's parents celebrated Christmas in Andersonville. Around the Christmas dinner table, the topic of our future came up. While we talked about our future extensively, we hadn't shared our timeline with our parents. We realized this was the moment. Kristopher was able to articulate how amazing their daughter is, how much she means to him, and how he wants to spend the rest of his life with her. Cara echoed these sentiments, sharing how much Kristopher feels like home. We likened meeting each other to when a camera clicks into focus. We were all beaming with joy, but it wasn't an engagement. At this point, we both knew an engagement was coming, and Cara asked that Kristopher take the reins. Anytime Kristopher gushed about Cara (as he is prone to do on any given day for any given occasion), Cara would ask "Is this it?" It was difficult to know if it was the engagement, or Kristopher just being very emotional about their love on a Tuesday morning. In order to take away the "Is this it?" stress, Kristopher asked Cara out on an explicitly non-proposal date. We needed to have some time where we could enjoy each other. The plan was to go for a walk by the lake, then grab cocktails and sushi. We arrived at the lake and it was beautiful. The sun was just starting to set and the beach was completely empty, like it had been on that June night. After walking a little, Kristopher turned to Cara and let her know that "this was it." Our first date had been exactly 31 weeks earlier on May 31st. Now, on the 3rd day of the 1st month, Kristopher was hoping to make up for the unromantic beach blunders on date two. Words were exchanged, a knee was bent, a question was asked as a ring was presented. What happened next never occurs in the movies. Cara only looked at Kristopher's face (never the ring) and pulled him up to her in an embrace. She accepted and asked if Kristopher would marry her. After a few minutes of holding each other, Cara did finally ask, "Oh. Can I see the ring?"