I Found The One Whom My Soul Loves Song of Solomon 3:4

Last February, I went with my roommate Katherine to a friend's birthday party on the rooftop of her friend's apartment. There was another party happening there as well - a group from South Bay attending a housewarming for a guy who had just moved into the building. There were mutual friends among the groups so the parties started to collide. I spent the evening chatting with my friends, but little did I know Nick was there wanting to talk to me and too nervous to do so. A few days later my friend (now roommate and bridesmaid) Christina brought Nick to a Holy Hour/Happy Hour at church and introduced us. I had heard Christina talk about Nick and his group of friends, and I thought maybe there was something between them when he showed up with her. I was oblivious that Christina was helping Nick get to know me. That weekend Christina also organized a hike for her south bay/north bay friends to meet. I was starting to catch on that there might be a set up here and tried to weasel out of it, but they all insisted. Our big group got split up so it ended up being just me, Christina, Lily, and Nick! Nick tried talking 1:1 during the hike, but I kept trying to get back to Lily and Christina so as not to lead him on. At the end of the hike though I got stuck walking next to Nick and surprisingly had an engaging conversation I quite enjoyed. I remember thinking to myself, "Wow, I haven't had such a thoughtful and free-flowing conversation with a guy in a long time." A few days later Nick called and asked me for coffee and (I later found out with some coaching from Christina) pulled out all the stops. He impressed me with a thoughtful gift after our first date and on our second date by driving up round trip from the south bay twice in one day so we could kayak in Santa Cruz! Still, it took til our 3rd date, dinner at a Creole restaurant on the eve of St. Joseph, til I finally fell for him. After that, it was very quick to love and knowing he was the one!

On February 6, 2022 I attended a friend's housewarming party (Mikey). That party was interrupted by another friend's birthday party (Randi). The parties combined and chaos arose. My eye was drawn to a beautiful curly haired woman wearing a black coat. My interest was high but my confidence was low. Driving home from the evening I spent the night kicking myself in the butt for not introducing myself. The next day my friend (Christina) was at my house to watch the Superbowl. I asked her if she had any idea who this mystery love interest of mine could have been. I mentioned all the criteria I observed. Curly hair, 5'4", wearing a black coat. Before I could finish my description she pulled her phone out with her picture, and asked if this was the mystery woman. I said, "Yes! Would you help me get my future wife?" She said, "Yes, mission accepted!" Christina, our mutual friend introduced us at a Tuesday evening prayer and happy hour with Star of the Sea. When she introduced us Rachel was not enthused to meeting the very attractive, charismatic me. A week later Christina organized a hike between me, her, Christina, and another friend Lily (she was also in on it). The hike was fantastic. We went to John Muir Woods and it was beautiful. Rachel was wearing sweatpants, a hoodie, and wore her hair up. She also craved McDonald French fries for some reason? We had a good conversation and Rachel was totally not excited. I felt like I needed to make a move now or never. A couple days after the hike I called Rachel. (After practicing mock scenarios of how the conversation may go) I then asked her out on a date for the upcoming Sunday. We went to grab coffee in Sausalito with a Bay view. An expected one hour date took nearly five hours. I won her over and then we fell in love... after she expressed more interest on our third date. " Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get, only with what you are expecting to give - which is everything." —​ Katharine Hepburn

Our proposal story always starts with when Nick *didn't* propose. We planned a weekend trip to see my sisters before flying to Nick's family for Christmas. Nick knew he was ready to lock this thing down and decided a few days prior to our trip that he would propose there, so I could celebrate with my sisters. He had the perfect opportunity already because my sisters had gotten the two of us tickets to a Christmas lightshow at Longwood Gardens. Throughout the night, Nick kept trying to pull us off the path for unknown reasons, but I was noncompliant. I wondered if he was trying to propose but I was thinking, surely he knows not here because it's not private enough. *Back story - on one of our early dates when we were talking about other people's engagement stories, I had told Nick the one thing I cared about for a proposal was that it was just the two of us.* Plus he was in an off mood after a hard day at work, so I didn't think he was up for proposing. At the end of the night he made a final attempt, but again I thwarted him, so we went home while Nick secretly texted the sisters, "Not yet!" My sisters and brothers-in-law kept trying to give Nick opportunities throughout the rest of the weekend to pop the question, but the right moment never came, so on Sunday night we headed out to Ohio still not engaged. We had a nice week in Ohio, and other than the fact that Nick kept carrying a backpack around, I was pretty convinced engagement wasn't happening this Christmas. On Christmas morning, we opened presents with his Mom, and when I asked if we should exchange our gifts, he said, "Let's wait til tonight." Suspicious... After some family time, Nick asked if I wanted to go to Adoration at his home church - St. Joseph. St. Joseph is a special patron of ours, and we don't often get to do Adoration together living further apart, so I was happy to spend some time with Jesus on Christmas. We thankfully had the code to get in this time after being locked out earlier in the week, and after a few minutes it was just the two of us and Jesus. Nick suggested we pray a rosary. He prayed for our relationship and God's blessing then started the rosary. When we finished, Nick said he had a reflection on joy he wanted to share with me because I had told him earlier in the day that I often struggle with joy on Christmas day. The reflection shared that the true joy of Christmas is in giving, not receiving. Then it read, "Now close your eyes while you reflect on this poem." I thought to myself, "How does this person expect you to close your eyes while reading?" but I obliged. When Nick finished, I opened my eyes, and he was on his knee with a ring! I said "yes" obviously and then we prayed and thanked God for bringing us together!