Six months before they met, Regan signed up for Go Nicaragua with Crossroads Church for her last Spring Break ever to work with Amigos For Christ. Everyone close to Regan did not think she would even make it on the plane. Against her own will, her friends loaded her up at 3 AM and said, "hasta luego." Randall had been working at Amigo's for two years prior to the Crossroads group coming down. On the first day in Nicaragua, the entire group climbed up an active volcano together. Once they reached the top, Randy couldn't help but notice the girl with a rather large back tattoo, but he didn't say hi. The next day was the group's first day in the community of La Danta digging trenches for a new clean water system. Regan got bored and started talking to Randall in the ditch— they bonded over sports, Mac Miller, Cincinnati, and school. They both were giddy about how much they had in common and in Regan's words, "I knew I'd marry him within 20 mins of talking." As the week went on Randall stalked Regan to find any excuse to talk to her. After a few late-night conversations and revelations from God, they both knew that this wasn't "just a week fling." Randall took Regan out on their first date the day before Regan went back to the states—which consisted of the casino, Mcdonalds, and getting caught by the HR director of Amigo's (oops). A short couple weeks after, Randall booked a plane ticket to come to visit Regan in Cincinnati and it was even better than they could've imagined.

The proposal was a dream and I couldn't have planned it better myself—Hey its Regan! The morning of him popping the question I got ready with my new dress and my friend Heather. He picked me up around 11 AM and we went to one of our favorite brunch spots, Brown Bear Bakery. We spent the morning talking about our future and how excited we were to see what God has planned for us. We then went to Taft Theater where he bought tickets to see Charlie Brown Christmas—this is where it gets interesting. The metal detector went off because he had the engagement ring in his pocket! Security made him take it out of his pocket and I didn't know a thing. I started asking him questions like, "Why are you shaking? are you cold? Now you're sweaty, what the heck," and my favorite, "Wouldn't that have been so funny if the metal detector went off because the ring was in your pocket?" (Yeah, so funny Regan). Anyway, after sitting through an hour of children crying we went off to eat apps and grab a drink near Washington Park. This is pretty normal for us so I didn't think anything of it. Then he started with, "You know how you made that joke about the ring in my pocket?" IT WAS PERFECT he told me how much he loved me and incorporated everything we talked about in the Bible that morning. Our friend Kathryn was there to capture the moment and I didn't think it could get any better—BUT IT DID! We went to dinner where he surprised me with my parents who drive two hours to get there and his parents. After we went to our favorite place, Rhinegiest, where he surprised me AGAIN with our closest friends to celebrate US—A literal dream.

“....and even still, He is good” A verse we have clung to over the last passing months. A verse we have found peace and comfort in in such an unknown time. Covid brought many changes to our lives individually and as our wedding date was approaching closer and closer we knew that would be another thing to change. Our ceremony venue, Crossroads Uptown, announced that there would be no services for the rest of 2020 as COVID-19 was spreading rapidly— this included all weddings. We had the option to try to reconfigure our wedding, cut our guest list, potentially put people at risk for catching the virus, causing us unneccesary strees OR we could simply get married now and have the wedding of our dreams when it was safe to. So we did. When we officially made the decision to move our wedding date we thought it would be a painful loss to us. But our day was anything but painful. Our wedding day was surrounded by 20 people who have impacted our personal journeys and supported us as a couple. It was perfect and we could tell His hand was placed on every detail throughout the day. Throughout our engagement we repeated over and over to ourselves and our friends, “we are preparing for a marriage, not a wedding” I think clinging to that made it that much easier to hear Gods voice saying, “and even still, it is good” and we are now feeling the fruit of that truth we fought for. Our hearts hurt that we couldn’t share this day with every single one of our friends and family members but we are looking forward to December 11, 2021 when we can (hopefully) dance all night. In the mean time we will be spending this time celebrating our new covenant.