Despite countless mutual friends over the course of the last decade--and crossing paths several times without any interaction or awareness of each other's existence -- we finally met through a mutual friend from Saint Andrew Orthodox Church who facilitated a phone number exchange. A week of texting lead to a last minute change of plans to invite a pretty girl to an Orthodox conference at the oblivious boy's home parish. There she agreed to oblige with no clue how this was going to unfold. The following number of months proceeded with each of us taking turns to visit each other in respective locations, Michael living in Orange County and Elizaveta residing in San Diego County. As we continued to acquaint ourselves with each other we discovered our pre-existing, mutual love for the Orthodox Church and our desire to expand it through humanitarian and philanthropic efforts. We recognized early on that this would be at the forefront of our relationship. Months turned into a year, then there was a proposal, and things went really well, or we wouldn't be here today inviting you to celebrate with us as we embark on a new chapter of our lives together. ^Note, there is a Saint's boot hidden in the engagement pictures [Michael's a Podiatrist, after all!].