Welcome to our journey...

Portia's POV: Joseph and I first met when he moved to Philly in 2015. One thing that immediately stood out to me was his spirituality and his love for Jehovah. This was always something that I admired greatly about him back then, and even now. Over the years, we became good friends. One of the main activities we would do together was field service. When I look back, those days were some of the most fun I've ever had in service. During this time, our friendship grew to the point where I considered Joseph to be one of my best friends. Then one day, one of our mutual friends told me Joseph had a crush on me! I was very shocked! But I thought it was just a small crush, so I didn't think much of it. In my head, he was going to get over it soon lol. Then soon after, Joseph pulled me to the side and told me himself. And that's when I realized, it wasn't just a small crush...He was serious. But we remained friends for a good while. Because we were such good friends, my feelings for him grew during this time. So, when he asked me to be his girlfriend, the only thing I could say was yes! We started dating January 2024 and it has been the happiest time of my life. I'm happy I am able to say that I am truly marrying my best friend. Joseph's POV: I remember when I first moved to Philly, Portia was among one of the first people that came by to visit. What's funny is, she doesn't even remember this. Over the years we started having mutual friends and because of that we would hang out on a regular basis. One thing I've always admired about her is her love for Jehovah, her friends and her optimism during difficult times. Oh, and her beautiful smile. Ok, those were 4 things lol. Two years ago, I started to have real feelings for her. But because we had such a great friendship, I tried to ignore it, saying maybe it's just a crush that will go away. But it didn't. I was thinking about her all the time to the point where I finally had to tell someone. So, I told one of our close friends about it. A few weeks later, I was told that Portia knew I liked her. I started to panic a little bit but decided I should just talk to her myself. After a Sunday meeting I pulled Portia to the side and told her how I felt about her. But Portia didn't say much besides " Oh okay, I don't know what to say." So, we left it at that and remained good friends. But during this time, I remained hopeful about us. A few months later, she finally told me that she felt the same way about me. On January 18th, 2024, we started dating and that was probably the happiest day of my life. I am grateful to Jehovah and our friends that we are able to start this new journey together.