THE MEET CUTE: Security footage from Triage in the Emergency Department at Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa, OK. July 21st, 2022 19:55: * A bewildered paramedic (Josh) forgets all about his stretcher-confined patient while staring at the cute ER nurse in black scrubs (Nadia) heroically de-escalating another very able-bodied ambulatory patient. She snaps him out of it— “You look lost. Can I help you?" Josh takes off his facemask, revealing a smolder: "Yes, you can help me. Will you marry me?" The rest is history… This story is mostly true ; ). In reality, neither of them expected a romantic relationship to develop from the encounter. Truth-be-told, after their fateful meeting at Saint Francis, Nadia and Josh became hot-headed frenemies of the highest order. If playing hard-to-get was a sport, they would have made the Olympic team. Josh made it explicitly clear their first coffee hang was “not a date.” Even still, they bonded over their deep love for medicine, the gospel of Jesus, nerdy bible things, good art, good poetry, and of course, an uncanny shared wonder of what God is doing in the world in the here and now. It became undeniable: they were kind of—sort of—falling for each other! Fast forward 23 months—through many doubleshot americanos, hand-written love notes, tearful hurdles, supportive friends, powerful confirmations, and answered prayers, Josh and Nadia survived dating. While Nadia made the first move asking Josh out, he was sure to make it up to her a year and half later, by finally getting down on one knee and asking her to be his wife. As this website makes it abundantly clear, she said YES!!!!!

“Go and enjoy choice food and sweet wine, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our LORD. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10) During a turbulent time in our wedding preparation, the Lord gave us this passage as a reminder. He has taken care of so many of the details and has been so kind to us. Weddings are a powerful reminder of the covenant God has made with us, his people. Our prayer is that our wedding day will be a small glimpse of the glorious feast God is preparing for all that He longs to welcome into His family—irrespective of our perceived worthiness, ability to make ourselves “presentable,” or our differing backgrounds. All are invited! Luke 14:13-23 The Parable of the Great Banquet When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became distraught and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ “‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full!” So come! Join us at our wedding feast! Fill up the house with dancing and celebration, sweet wine and joy! We cannot wait to party with you!