WE'RE GETTING MARRIED!!

Philip and I met in Kruger National Park on June 9th, 2023, when he was still a student and I had just begun leading missionary teams for Go Missions. We saw each other multiple times over the next year, but it wasn’t until the Kruger National Park annual half marathon that we started feeling more like friends and less like coworkers. That first weekend was so much fun, and we got to know each other so much better while camping in Kruger for four days. By the end of the weekend, I knew I was in trouble because he was all I thought about the following week. Thankfully, Philip asked me to come spend the next weekend with him and his friends and coworkers in Kruger before I headed back to the States. It was there, on August 11th, 2024, that he asked me to be his girlfriend. Fourteen months later, we were engaged, and God has been incredibly kind to us. There is nothing easy about long distance, especially one with an eight-hour time difference that takes two days of travel just to see one another. But it built us day by day. It taught us communication and the importance of a strong foundation based on truly knowing one another’s hearts. We’ve had more adventures in this past year than some have in a lifetime, and we cannot wait to see what the future holds. We’ve explored three countries, been on 35 planes just to be together, traveled through five of South Africa’s nine provinces and ten of the fifty U.S. states together. We’ve been to concerts, national parks, bucket-list hikes, deep-sea fishing trips, hunting weekends, and so, so much more. We are so incredibly grateful for the friends and family who have walked alongside us, carried us in ways they may not even realize, and supported our relationship from the very beginning. We know the effort it takes to show up for a wedding in another country, and it means more than we can put into words to have so many of the people we love all in one place. No matter where you are or how you’re able to celebrate with us, please know how honored we are to have you as part of our story and our lives. This journey has been shaped by so much love, and we’re deeply thankful to share it with you.