For those of you that don’t know how Ashley and I met, it’s both a romantic and funny story. I met her at the Saint Joan of Arc church festival in Hershey, a three day back to back event, in June of 2023. But, there’s a little more to the story than just that. Night one of the festival for me was spent in Maryland, where I work. My friends and family were already at the festival enjoying the first round. As that first night wrapped up, I got a call from my father. He was asking if I still planned on coming back home to Hershey for the weekend to attend the rest of the festival. It’s $1 beers at this festival. Of course I planned on coming home. My father told me he also saw a beautiful girl working at one of the stands and that I had to meet her. “Ok, Dad, I’ll keep that in mind.”…. having absolutely no intentions of meeting this girl. Until I saw her. The old man was right… for once. She was beyond beautiful. I let the next hour go by without doing anything- except maybe a couple more dollar beers with the guys. My father wasn’t taking no for an answer though. He kept nudging me to go up to this girl. My father simply wasn’t going to let me off the hook. With a grin on his face, he slapped me on the back. “Alright, buddy. Let’s go talk to her. I’m coming with you.” Here I was, a grown man, about to walk up to the most stunning girl I had ever seen—with my dad standing right next to me. I know- pretty pathetic. But there was my dad, with that look of confidence and excitement in his eyes, ready to be my “wing-man.” We approached her booth, and my dad, as usual, had no hesitation. He walked right up to her and started chatting like he had known her forever. He did a little bit of the heavy lifting at first, and then slowly faded away into the background. Even though it was nerve wracking moment with all of my buddies standing at distance watching me, for a moment, it felt like the world had shrunk down to just the two of us. I felt a sense of ease I wasn’t expecting. It truly felt like God meant for this moment to happen. Well, He did because that night, I went home with more than just a few beers and fried food—I had met someone special. My future wife.