We're getting married!

Our story began how all good stories begin: in a country far away, quite a long time ago. Back in 2015, we were both living in Chengdu (China). Michiel used to attend the international Christian fellowship every Sunday. Then, one week in March, Hannah visited. After church, a tall Dutch guy noticed she was new, walked up to her, and invited her to join the young adult Bible Study group. Then they (we) went to have a donut at a local bakery with some others.

For a year-or-so after that initial meeting, while we did not hang out in-person frequently, we talked a lot on Chinese social media and good friends. Topics ranged from personality tests to interesting scientific facts to deep theology questions, often discussed at great length. I (Michiel) remember one time that we hung out clearly: Hannah asked me to come with her on a trip to IKEA (fun!) to... carry a rug for her. We had a lot of fun talking and eating ice cream. (There is probably a picture of this particular IKEA visit on the Photos page on this website.) After Michiel left China and went to live in NY, our friendship continued. The next years we would periodically send random sermons, Youtube videos, articles, and deep thoughts to each other. Usually we would catch up about once or twice a year.

Hannah returned from China in the summer of 2017. At that point, Michiel already spent a semester in NY at Elim Bible Institute. Knowing what it was like to spend a summer abroad in between semesters, Hannah invited Michiel down for the week with her family in Virginia. They (we) hopped in a car and took an epic road trip that had them talking for 12 hours straight! Hannah's family was curious about the tall, good-looking Dutch man who was 'just a friend'. (Hannah's dad was convinced they should date.) Hannah, however, adamantly defended their status as "Just Friends". They traveled and explored D.C. with excitement and stimulating conversations. On July 4th they sat outside in the Capitol and watched the fireworks together. Hannah internally thought "Hmm, this would be such a fun date idea...how romantic!". She did not put the pieces together that she and Michiel should date. Instead, she offered great girl advice to him and enjoyed their time together.

Fast forward to 2020. The world is about to go on pause and Hannah and Michiel are in a personal season of transition and change. They do their yearly video chat update and catch up, one sends an article recommendation, another sends a podcast, songs are shared, and friendly conversations continue. As the world is shut down, Hannah and Michiel find themselves very single and having a lot of fun discussing all kinds of things, to the point of talking (through voice recordings) pretty much every day. They have a nightly routine of walking and listening to voice messages on WhatsApp in the different cities they live in. They seem to never run out of things to talk about and become closer and deeper friends...

Ah.. the beach trip. We both look back on this trip as a big turning point in our story. Hannah and some of her friends from church were planning to take a trip to Virginia beach. When they were thinking of some other guys to invite, to even out the ratio a little bit, one of Hannah's friends asked "why don't you invite Michiel, Hannah?" So Hannah did. Now it's important to note that this is roughly around the time Hannah fully decided she liked Michiel more than friends! However, she had no idea if Michiel felt the same way! Michiel did say yes to coming and they both hopped into a car and met Hannah's friends down at the beach. The trip had a bit of everything: Ice cream, torrential downpours, flooded vehicles, sushi, jellyfish stings, friends wondering what in the world is going on with Hannah and Michiel, and lots and lots of laughter. It was on this very trip, Saturday the 26th that Hannah and Michiel realized "Hey....this whole spending the day together, eating together, watching sunsets on the beach together..this....works!" and they walked away from that trip acknowledging there was something more to there friendship than before...

***Michiel's point of view coming soon! Switching gears a little, I'll tell you my point of view [Hannah] on how this went down! After the beach trip, we regularly started talking to each other on video chat and would have what we called "Nerd Corner". It was every Sunday and we would watch a Documentary online (in different states) and then have long discussions about it. One September day, we decided to watch "The Inside Job" about the 2008 financial crash. Really romantic right? ;) I thought it was a typical Sunday and after the movie ended and we would talk just about the movie. We did but Michiel told me he had three things to discuss with me that day. After he smoothly transitioned from the first topic, he looked at his list in front of him then causally just said "So I would like to discuss our relationship"...After a moment of shock I was speechless, which if you know me well, that's a hard thing to accomplish. I don't remember much of what he said because I was too excited but I do remember something vaguely about asking me out and me saying yes a bunch of times. The rest is history...

Coming soon