I have known Curtis for over 10 years but very casually. Just knew him because we both live in the DMV and we have been friends on Facebook for about that long too(since 2011). Never had his number or even talked to him until about 2020. Curtis and I have a mutual friend Maye aka "Chichi" as I call her. She is one of my besties but we live miles apart. I live on the East Coast and she is on the West Coast in Seattle, Washington. Despite our miles apart, Chichi always make effort to fly and come spent time with me. Most importantly, she will come to celebrate my special events. In July 2020 during the pandemic, Chichi visited me to celebrate my 29th Birthday and spend time with me. On her visits to the DMV, she will always squeeze in time to see some of her other friends, and Curtis happened to be one of them. She was discussing with Curtis and told him she was here for my birthday. Curtis was just coming out of a previous relationship going on about 3 months at the time so he was single, free, and ready to mingle....... hahaha. But yeah he was because things kind of moved so quickly from here on. He did more inquiries about me from Chichi and we later exchanged numbers and started communicating. Things went fast like I initially mentioned for real.... haha 😄. That same weekend, he initiated and proposed to take me, my twin sister, and Chichi to a "Birthday Dinner Outing". He told me to look up any nice and fancy restaurant and do the reservations. I was down for it and said "say no more😂”. I was starting to have interest too. I went straight to work on the task assigned. I called up Mastro's Steakhouse in Downtown DC and did reservations for 9 pm. My birthday fell on a Monday 7/27, so we celebrated with a Bday dinner on Saturday 8/1/20. My twin sister could not join us because she went out of town that weekend to see her man 😀. So just 3 of us went for dinner. It was an awesome dinner, filled with very engaging and meaningful convos. Curtis and I were discussing like we have been close for so long. I could sense the connection and familiarity already. We ended up leaving Mastro's around 1 am. We were the last people to exit the restaurant that night😁. We wanted to continue the night by going to a lounge and chill, but there was not a lot to do as most places were shut down because we were still at the peak of Covid-19. We just decided and came back home to my apt in downtown Silver Spring, where we just chilled and discussed some more and by 4 am, Curtis left us to head back to his abode in Baltimore. Trust us, girls, to grind.....hahaha. When he left, we did not sleep until like 6:30 am that morning. Only grinding about everything that had been happening in between and just really LOL. But yeah she asked me if I was feeling it thus far and I was like yeah, I am in, I am liking this, let's do this💃. My Bestie, my Chichi unfortunately had to leave me the next day Sunday back to Seattle. I had to drop her off at BWI Airport to catch her 5:45 pm flight. I told her when I leave the airport, I will call Curtis and ask if he was home so I could stop by since he lived just about 20 mins from the airport. She laughed hysterically full of excitement and said "ok ohhhh Chichi" I will be calling you as soon as I get off the plane so you can spill me the tea. I did just that..... haha. I called Curtis as soon as I dropped Chichi off, I thanked him for the dinner last night and I asked what he was up to? he said just home chilling. I said ok send me your address I am coming to visit you. He sent it immediately, I drove and in 20 mins I was at his place. He served me some wine and he said he had not cooked and we ordered chicken wings and fries from Buffalo Wild Wings. We put on a movie and watched it together. The next day was a working day, so I left his place back to mine. We continued from then on and the rest is History😀🤪

At this point, Daddy Curts and I were already dating going on almost a year. We started dating officially in August 2020. My 30th birthday 🥳 was coming up in July 2021 and I was planning to celebrate with a girls-only trip to Dubai. I didn’t know Curtis had his plans…yikes🥹 While I was planning my trip to Dubai, Curtis was concurrently planning a surprise 😧 engagement behind my back, to take place in the same Dubai. Fast forward to July 2021. He dropped me off at the airport on Thursday 7/21/21 and bid me farewell. Little did I know he was following with his flight the next day 7/22 to join me in Dubai. The engagement took place on Monday 7/26 and I knew all along we were going to celebrate one of our dear sisters Senge’s birthday 🎂 since her birthday just passed a few days ago. We all had to wear white for the event….trust us Africans to always pull up a dress code😂😂. For some reason, I am not sure why I didn’t pick it up that everyone had on white but me🧐🤨. Anyways, Yi gets as yi be. Just for me to get there and I see about 30 people and just as Curtis would say, I said "what's going on here?". Family and friends from all over the world and mostly the US. Shocked 😮 was an understatement. Curtis was there with one knee down and with Simi’s song 🎵 “Running to You” playing in the background. I was moved to the circle to meet him where he was kneeling and he popped the question. At that same moment he popped the question, I fell to the floor on my knees practically bawling my eyes out. Was an easy “YES I WILL” and from there, we moved on to the restaurant he had made reservations and we just dined and wined and took so many pictures capturing memories from that night. It was a very fun 🤩 night and we entered my 30th bday when the clock stroke 12 as a fionceee💍 okurrrr😛. One of my best birthdays yet. I am looking forward to building this life we have started in so many ways. I am praying it grows from strength to strength🙏🏽. This is a new phase we are about to enter in our lives. I call this “GROWTH” because we can never be ready enough for it. After all, like any growth, it’s going to be new. But I know together on the same team, we are going to make this work. Let’s keep striving and thriving……cheers 🥂 to this new chapter. It only gets better from here. Love ❤️ Nina. PS: The Engagement Video is on the Homepage. Watch it to see how everything went down that fateful night in Dubai🥰. Godspeed 🫶🏾