Jason was spending a blip in his hometown of Portland, Oregon. After living in Seattle for years he was in transition and "in his own lane," so to speak. Kat was stopping by her favorite brewery to grab a beer and do some computer work after a long trail run. The only open seat was next to Jason! Lucky us. It was divine timing, but we had no idea upon first meeting. Both "uninterested" in dating we were just two babes having a deep, authentic conversation, with a healthy stream of flirtation and zero expectation. Exactly one month later a first date organically aligned. It was an unexpected, heart blasting experience. Jason refers to this as his "best yes ever." Talk about alignment!
We had just spent a week in Montana on Flathead lake, at A Camp to Remember - a summer camp for kiddos who are grieving. Jason has been a camp counselor there for 20 years and it is a huge part of his heart and his journey. The week of camp we had little interaction because we each had loads of kids and responsibilities filling every waking moment. Literally! We were in different cabins with different roles and different groups of kiddos. During camp we had minimal "hellos," moments of hand holding in passing, glances during camp songs at night, and quick pecks in the mess hall over breakfast. What had many moments observing one another in passing, always holding space for the kiddos surrounding us, laughing, holding, playing, listening, all the beautiful stuff. Joy filled and grief filled. When we left camp our hearts were blasted open and we spent an hour processing on our way back to Missoula. We were exhausted, but inspired! We checked into our Airbnb, walked down by the river on our way to meet our friends from camp and Jason popped the question. We knew since our third date that we wanted to marry each other everyday indefinitely, so of course Kat said "YES!"