Mo and I met through ChristLife Young Adults in fall of 2013. We were both serving on the service team during a Discovering Christ course for young adults. I immediately noticed his desire to serve people and it caught my attention. I loved hearing about his heart to serve others and everything he was involved in. Our first real conversation happened standing in the freezing cold November night for over an hour and they continued to get longer as time passed.

We first met in the Fall of 2013 when ChristLife Young Adults was putting on a course called Discovering Christ, Fiona and I were both on the service team. Fiona was immediately struck by my dashing good looks and the rest is history! I had noticed her as well and during clean up one night offered to take some things to her car. We started talking and ended up being the last ones there. We had a great conversation and I could't wait to talk to her again.

After talking every Wednesday for over a month, Mo finally got the courage to ask me out on a date. I had no idea he was interested in dating me, but I knew I wanted to see where this would go. I had to say no because I already had a commitment for that weekend but invited him to the activity I was volunteering at. Thankfully Mo was not discouraged by my saying no and asked me out again and I said yes this time. We went to Bean Hollow in Old Ellicott City to get coffee. Our first date lasted over 3 hours and it could have lasted longer, I was really enjoying talking to him. After our first date I knew we had a chance at being something, I just had to wait months for Mo to come to the same conclusion.

After getting to know Fiona more over the next few weeks I knew I liked her a lot and asked her out...but she said no! She was volunteering at a Christmas event at the Shrine of St. Anthony that weekend and wasn't free but did invite me to come to the event and see her which made me feel better. I went home for Christmas vacation but we still stayed in touch through texting. While I was home, I asked her out again and this time she said yes! We got coffee at Bean Hollow in Old Ellicott City where we again ended up talking for hours.

After our first date it took Mo about 5 months to bring up the conversation about defining our relationship, to be fair to him he was gone out of the country for about 2 months of that. I was ready to bring up that conversation if he didn't do it, I knew he was special and I wanted to know where he stood, but I am thankful that I was patient and let him bring up the conversation. However, my patience wore out while waiting for him to say "I love you," it took me a long time to build up the courage to bring up the topic, I was told it is not ladylike to bring up those conversations. In November, after dating over 10 months my patience finally wore-out and I worked up the courage to bring up the conversation by indirectly asking how he felt about me. This question was answered in a very round about way forcing me to out right say "I am falling in love with you and want to know how you feel!" At that he said he loved me and that he was waiting until our 1 year dating anniversary to tell me, he though it would be romantic to say I love you a year later at the location of our first date. I was touch by the thought but very happy to know where we stood. Over the next 3ish years we had many great adventures! A couple of my favorites would be us going for a hike at Cunningham Falls, white water tubing at Harpers Ferry, our many trip to Michigan and a few beach trips. I think my favorite date of all was in March 2017 going to Frederick to walk around and get dinner. We were both in school at the time and hadn't gotten time to just enjoy the other person, I love getting to just spend time with Mo away from the distraction of life.

After dating for about a couple months I knew that I really liked Fiona and wanted to talk with her to see how she felt. Unfortunately, right at the same time I had to travel out of town on a six week work trip. I decided to hold off on having this conversation until after I got back. Due to being given some "bad advice" I decided to wait a few weeks after coming back to bring up the conversation. Fortunately Fiona has the patience of a saint and we became official! Fiona continued to display this saintly patience when it came to saying I love you. We were in the Fall of 2014 about a year since we first started talking when I was thinking of telling her I love her. Since we were close to the end of the year I thought it would be cool to wait until our 1 year dating anniversary on Jan 4th to say "I Love You". That was the wrong move, Fiona had been wondering what my intentions were and whether I was falling in love. One Friday night while sitting in the parking lot of Our Lady of Perpetual Help she brought the conversation up and we both ended up saying "I love you". The next 3 years of dating were great, there were definitely tough moments like growing in communication (turns out I wasn't as great at communicating as I thought I was) and learning how to balance my work and school with Fiona's work and school while still investing time into growing our relationship. However, there were plenty of awesome moments as well such as the Valentine's dinner in the Baltimore Inner Harbor in the middle of a snowstorm to tubing down the Potomac to exploring Gettysburg. In Fiona I had a partner who was always ready to have adventures with me.

On July 16, 2017 Mo told me that he was picking me up for a date the next day at 6:30 PM and to wear a dress. He didn't tell me what we were doing or where we were going. I was suspicious that he was going to propose but it was clear he didn't want me to ask any questions. Throughout Monday my suspicions grew, my mom offered to let me wear any of her dresses and there was a random call from Mo stating that the date was still on despite the rain. The call did not make sense to me because I didn't know what the plan was for the evening. By evening I was over thinking and putting too much pressure on the date, so I called my sister who talked me down and reduced some of the expectations. She already knew what was happening but did not let on at all that she knew. Mo picked me up around 7 PM, and drove to the Shrine of St. Anthony. Once we arrived he told me we were going to have a picnic, but due to rain the original location Mo had planned on was wet and we ended up in the St. Therese garden. The cool thing is that St. Therese is my confirmation saint. The garden was beautiful with the roses in full bloom and it smelled wonderful. Mo had thoughtfully made dinner for me and prepared my favorite meal. He made cheeseburgers on arugula with feta cheese, guacamole, and pico de gallo. He also brought chocolate and champagne with him. This man knows me so well. After eating dinner, he pulled out a letter he written and read it to me. Earlier in the year he had came across an article stating 10 qualities to look for in a future wife and he wrote about how I showed those qualities in our relationship. I almost cried, but I had put on mascara that was not waterproof and did not want black streaks on my face. After he finished reading the letter he told me it was time for me to stand up, he got on one knee, pulled out the ring and asked me to marry him. I was so happy I don't know what I said but it was some form of yes. I love him so much!

Over the course of our time dating the talk of marriage had come up several times and with each passing moment I grew in my certainty that Fiona was the girl that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I had seen so many positive qualities in Fiona such as her heart to serve others, sense of humor, her devotion to family, and her support of me pursuing my Masters. After much brainstorming I ended up with the idea of doing a picnic and reading her a hand written letter where I listed 10 things about her that led me to ask her to be my future wife. Picnics and handwritten letters are two of Fiona's favorite things. I had a day picked out but unfortunately the ring got delayed so I had to move the proposal to July 17th. I wanted it to be a surprise so all I told Fiona was to wear a dress. It was raining on that day but fortunately by the evening the clouds went away and the sun came out. I made dinner and packed a picnic basket along with a bottle of champagne that I knew Fiona liked. I then went to pick up Fiona and took her to the St. Therese garden at the Shrine. This garden is a special place for us because it was in front of this garden that we spent many hours talking on Wednesday nights after our ChristLife meetings getting to know each other. We sat down and ate the awesome dinner I made but I was surprisingly nervous during the whole thing. After dinner I asked her to stand up with me and I read aloud my letter to her after which I knelt down to propose and she said yes! I don't think I had ever been as happy as I was at that moment!