At 13 years old, MJ and Gavin met in confirmation classes at Prince of Peace Catholic Church. Gavin would say MJ wanted nothing to do with him when they met, but she would say he was just another oblivious teenage boy. He was a class clown, always trying to get a laugh and impress the girls, and she was not receptive to the act. As cute as she thinks Gavin is, she was always hoping he'd figure out how to be a little more serious than silly. They spent a fair amount of their time in youth group and at church camp in the same group of friends, teasing each other the way teenagers do when they have a crush but no idea how to handle it. Unfortunately, the summer after freshman year of high school, they lost track of each other between busy schedules at different schools and less time at youth group. Or at least MJ thought they did. Conveniently, every time Gavin caught wind that MJ was without a boyfriend in high school (which her family would say didn’t happen very often), he would always find a reason to message her on social media and ask, “How have you been?” Then the pandemic hit, and like everyone else, they found themselves stuck at home and finishing school online. At the time, they were just two people who used to spend a little extra time looking in the mirror before youth group, hoping the other one might be there. Fast forward to the summer of 2025. After living entirely different lives for five years, God brought them back together. MJ had just moved back to Kansas City after graduating from K-State, and Gavin managed to find yet another opportunity for, “How have you been?” With a little convincing from her mom and sister to “see how it goes,” MJ agreed to meet Gavin for one drink at Austin’s in Olathe. One drink somehow turned into seven hours of conversation about what their lives had looked like without each other, where they thought life was headed, and sharing stories about their very different perspectives on their teenage fling. Somewhere between all the laughing and catching up, Gavin had learned when to be serious, and MJ had learned she didn’t always have to be too cool to be silly. Gavin would say he hoped and prayed after that night that this was finally where their story had been leading all along. MJ would say she already knew. Her mind was made up when she sat down at the bar. Five minutes in, the laughs came just as easily as they did when they were 13 years old on the bus to church camp. Their second date was only two days later when they met for Sunday evening Mass at the church where they first met, followed by dinner afterward. Their third date was the very next day. From that point on, it didn’t take long for both of them to realize that after years of near misses, growing up, and finding their way back to each other, they were finally exactly where they were meant to be. Ten months after that first official date at Austin’s, on March 28th, 2026, Gavin proposed to MJ at the Kansas City Zoo with a custom ring made from his great-grandmother’s ring and her grandmother’s diamond, a perfect reminder that long before they realized it themselves, God had been writing their story from the very beginning.