Jacob: I was riding my motorcycle on my way to put in a few extra hours at work but I was hungry so I stopped to get a strawberry fields salad at Culvers. I went to go sit outside since it was such a beautiful evening, and my friend / co-worker Andrew Nold was sitting at a table with his friends. I waved and he waved, and I thought "I'm not just going to sit here and eat my salad when my friend Andrew is only 20 feet away" so I walked over and sat down with him and his friends. Lily was there and I thought she was pretty cool, although we didn't have any more interaction for the rest of the summer. Lily: If you know Jacob then you know that he can be very intentional with his small talk. It was one of the first things I noticed about him, how he sat at a table full of strangers (well except for Andrew) and intentionally asked questions and listened. I actually found it quite unusual at the time, but now it is something I have grown to really appreciate about Jacob. After that meeting, I don't recall thinkng much more about him the rest of the summer until we met again.
Lily: A soon-to-be mutual friend (Aimee) of ours started a grad student Bible study and we were both seperately invited to it. I was sitting with Aimee in the Michigan Tech library when Jacob strolled up. I didn't recognize him at first but the pieces clicked together after we talked some. I also found out that I had helped a friend butcher goats on his family farm before I had even met him. It was a moment where both people go, "huh, what a small world." That school year it was just Jacob, Aimee, and I in that Bible study. It was a fantastic Bible study and all three of us grew to be good friends. At this time I didn't think of Jacob as a potential partner, but through deep conversatoin and studying the Word he grew to be someone that I felt safe with and trusted. Jacob: We met again at a small bible study for grad students at Michigan Tech. It was a great study that provided the space for us to study God's word in a focused and intentional way. For the entire first year we didn't get together but then we had a Bible study on Memorial Day which meant that the library where we normally met was closed. Instead, we had it at Lily’s apartment where she lived with her sister Emmalee. In her garage, she showed me one of the projects she was working on - some really cool wooden crosses. She needed a bunch of pieces that were all the same thickness so I invited her to come out to the farm and use my planar. She came out to the farm and I showed here where all the tools were and she had a great time making progress on her project. I didn’t end up helping much because I was working on another project (which is still in progress to this day).
Lily: Jacob texted me asking if I wanted to go trail running with him while he tried out some new trail running shoes that he had bought. There are two things that I remember from that run. One, Jacob talked a lot during the run. Like, a lot. He was asking me so many questions that I was sucking in air trying to run and talk. And two, he ended up twisting his ankle. After he twisted his ankle, our run slowed to a walk and he even ended up walking me home since I lived nearby. Walking and talking ended up being much easier and we had a really good conversation. My sister and wingman, Emmalee, told me to invite him in for cinnamon rolls that she had just made. After that I really wanted to see him more often so I figured it was my turn to reach out to him. It was getting later in the year and darker earlier so I asked if he wanted to do weekly night runs. I might have added the pretense that I was too afraid to run by myself in the dark. He said yes and I was pretty elated; we got about 3 or so runs in until Jacob finally asked me out. Jacob: I asked Lily to go running with me because I wanted to spend more time with her and once a week at Bible study was not enough. I was supposed to get new running shoes in the mail so I thought I’d ask her if she wanted to go trail run with me. My new shoes were too big so I ended up wearing my old ones. The run was great until I twisted my ankle, but it was a blessing in disguise because we got to walk back to her place and eat chicken pot pie and freshly baked cinnamon roles with her sister Emmalee. Then we went on some night runs over the next couple weeks before I finally decided to ask her out.
Jacob: I was really quite nervous about asking Lily out. I wasn’t sure if she was wanting to just be running and Bible study friends. So I sent her a text saying that I wanted to “run an idea past her” that evening. That night, we talked and I asked her, and we walked around and talked for the rest of the evening - it was absolutely incredible to get to know Lily more. Lily: I wasn't quite sure what Jacob wanted to talk about when he messaged me about "having an idea to run by you." I had a small suspicion that he might ask me out, but I wasn't fully sure that he was even interested in me yet. My interest in him had grown with the more time that we spent together, but I couldn't quite get a read on him to know if he felt the same. Spoiler alert but he did end up asking me out and we walked and talked for hours that night. It was a wonderful night and I was really excited to see where our relationship would go. Turns out that down the road a couple of months, the pieces came together as I had the thought, "yeah, I am going to marry this man."
Lily: A simple explanation of why I love Jacob would be to say because of who he is. He is incredibly kind, caring, and patient. I have met very few people who show as much intentionality as he does when it comes to his family, friends, and even complete strangers. He cares for people and will drop what he is doing instantly to help anyone in need. I feel completely safe with him in every sense of the word. Plus, he has accepted that the cat that I adopted with Emmalee named Sir Maximus Rex is part of the deal in being with me and has adopted him as his own. Jacob: Because Lily is by far the most amazing woman I have ever met. I absolutely love the way that Lily cares for the people around her and how she cares for me. I love how much she loves Jesus and it is so incredible to praise the Lord with her. I am so very excited to go through the rest of my life with her. Skiing / snowboarding with her is also pretty chill.