In 2021, I found myself at a crossroads of a big decision in my life. My dad had retired and my parents were talking about selling the house that they lived in for 20 years and moving to a beach somewhere. My youngest sister was graduating college and planning to move to Charlotte, NC where her boyfriend lived. (Good news, they’re married and it worked out for them!) I didn’t know what my next move was, but I knew the only reason I was still in Ohio at this point was because my family was there. If they were out, so was I. I prayed about it constantly, knowing I needed God to guide me and direct my steps now more than ever, and to open the right doors to make it abundantly clear what I should do. I decided to look for jobs in a couple different places, and accepted a job and found an apartment in Charlotte. Before my move, I was trying to research and prepare what my steps to building a life for myself there would look like. I researched churches, I tried to figure out where I would go to get my hair done, and I prematurely changed my location on Hinge to try to get a peek into the dating scene... I wasn’t looking for anything on Hinge at that time, and figured I would take some time to get settled before I could even begin to fathom the idea of trying to date. But I had a conversation with someone I never ended up meeting, and we talked about churches in the area. He recommended I check out Vizion Church, though he no longer went there. The name was familiar because this one already caught my eye on Google. Immediately after moving, I went to a new hair stylist, and we got on the topic of moving and how it’s hard to meet friends as an adult. She recommended an app for meeting friends, and I connected with a girl who invited me to her church that Sunday and to have lunch with her connect group afterwards. The church? Vizion Church. It is because of her that I got connected with the group of people that I did. The next year, I became friends a girl named Michelle who started to attend the connect group at church that I was a part of. Several months later, she brought a coworker named Drew to church with her, and briefly introduced us on his first Sunday. For months, the two of them invited me to hang out with them and another one of Drew’s friends who I knew nothing about. I was in an incredibly busy season of my life and kept having to cancel or try to reschedule. I had no idea what they were up to, until one day they got frustrated with my schedule and finally laid out what they had been trying to do for a couple of months… “How do you feel about being set up? Can I give this guy your number?”

In June 2017, I decided I wouldn’t let my family leave me after graduating college, so I followed them to Charlotte, North Carolina. Being a new grad, I filled my time with one thing: work. Fast-forward three years and a global pandemic later, I followed a daily schedule of eating, sleeping, and working. I needed something new, so I left my job for something better. At this new job, I met a guy named Drew and we became friends over our shared dislike of our jobs. We talked about cars and computers, but we eventually became close enough that we started talking about relationships. After being single through most of my 20s, I was ready to get out and actually try to meet someone in 2022. I got on the dating apps and… Nothing happened. Everyone I found was missing *something*. I started to go on and off the dating apps and decided that, eventually, the person I was meant to be with would show up. I just needed to pray and be patient. In October 2024, Drew and I were having a conversation about the dating scene. I prayed, I swiped, but I never met the person that just felt right. Drew had started going to a new church and just met this girl who was a friend of a friend. He told me she “had the same personality and humor” as us and that I should meet her. Little did I know, he and her friend had secretly devised a plan for the girl and me to meet, but schedules just would not align. She and I were both busy, no matter the day or week. Finally, her friend told me she would give me the girl’s number, and we could set up a date. I was about to fly 1,000 miles to Texas for Thanksgiving, but I decided to just give it a shot…