At the end of 2023 and into the beginning of 2024, states away from each other, Nikolai and Selah both created profiles on a dating app. Over the course of the following months they learned a lot about dating, themselves and what they were looking for, but for both of them, no relationships panned out. In December 2024, while spending the holidays down south, Nikolai saw Selah's picture on the app and decided he wanted to know more about this girl. He sent her a like on December 29th, not knowing that Selah's plan was to delete the app on January 1st! Selah figured "I'm deleting this app in a few days, why not give this guy a chance?" and sent him a message. They talked for a few days on the app about coffee and the Bible, and discovered they had attended the same school for seminary! Nikolai asked for her phone number and they started texting. On New Year's Eve he threw out the idea of meeting in person, and offered to stop in Iowa for a coffee date on his way back to Wisconsin. Selah appreciates a man who takes initiative, so she said yes. On January 2nd, 2025 they met at Dash Coffee Roasters in Cedar Rapids, only to find that it was closed. Standing in the falling snow, they pivoted and decided to go to another coffeeshop in the nearby city market. The date started at 2pm, and at 4:45pm, they realized they had been talking for almost three hours. Selah liked his tattoos and humor, and how she instantly felt like she had known him forever. Nikolai liked her eyes, forwardness and confidence and "knew he couldn't pass on this gem" (his words). As they neared the end of the date, he said something about "the next time we do this." She asked him, "oh, so there's going to be a next time?" He said "absolutely." So they made plans for a dinner date the following weekend. They facetimed the next day...and a few days after that...and started sending audio messages back and forth during the day. Needless to say, the next date went well. A few weeks later, they made it official. Nikolai asked Selah to be his girlfriend as he made her dinner during her first visit to Madison. What followed was a flurry of nightly phone calls, facetime dates, handwritten letters back and forth from Madison to Cedar Rapids, and a countdown each week of how many days were left before they would see each other again. They met halfway for dinner, drank more cups of coffee than one could count, watched each other's favorite movies, and started to fall in love. They also discovered that even though they met through an app, they had tons of overlap in their "real life" circles! They knew some of the same people, had been in the same cities at the same time numerous times over the years, and had even passed each other when Selah worked on campus during seminary and Nikolai happened to be visiting the school for a few days. Like ships in the night, they passed each other until the moment was right. Only God could have put together a story like that! On Valentine's Day Nikolai told Selah that he loves her, to which she replied "Really?!" She quickly followed up with "I love you too." The rest was history. More miles were driven back and forth, they met each other's friends and family, they took road trips to Chicago and Indiana and Omaha, attended concerts, read books together, moved Selah into a new house (twice), and started talking about the future. They both knew quickly that this was different from anything they had experienced in the past, and that they could see this going somewhere. Nikolai told Selah he wanted to marry her in a parking lot by the lake after eating Crumbl cookie, and she knew she wanted to marry him too. He popped the question a few months later on her birthday, completely surprising her and making it a birthday she will never forget! The past 11 months have been full of so much joy and love and evidence of God's blessing and favor. We can't wait to start our lives together, and to celebrate with all of our favorite people!