I (Stephanie) remember sitting on my couch when I get a Facebook message from my childhood pastors wife, Kathie, telling me about this great Christian boy. Bla bla bla I was initially cranky about someone trying to set me up, but I eventually decided that we could message on Facebook and get to know one another. I was back home in Indiana over Christmas break and was going on vacation and then heading directly back to Chicago so I had one available day to meet- the day after Christmas. We met at a local coffee shop and hit it off right away! The coffee shop closed so we walked over to the library until it also closed. Four hours later we said good bye and agreed that we would both like to keep talking. I (Josiah) was approached by Kathie and said that she knew a great Christian girl who had grown up in her church. She told me Stephanie works at Child Evangelism Fellowship in Chicago about two hours away from where I was living and was asking if I would be interested in talking with her since she knew I was looking. My eyes immediately lit up and I said I was interested in talking with her. She said she would ask Stephanie and that she would let me know what her response would be. Kathie got back with me fairly quickly and let me know that Stephanie was willing to talk so we messaged a few times on Facebook and she was wanting to meet at a coffee shop. So we met at the French Press Cafe in Plymouth. The more we talked the more we grew fond of each other and the rest is history!

Josiah took me to Potawatomi Park that had some nature walks. He brought his guitar and we wandered around for a little bit. As we were walking we passed a gazebo that had flowers on it. He took me inside and there were rose petals on the table and a jar of lights. He wrote me a song and played it on the guitar. Then he took me out of the gazebo and proposed. His brother was hiding in the bushes so he got some pictures! Until I saw the gazebo with flowers I wasn't expecting it. What a wonderful surprise! After the proposal we went back to his parents house and they decorated our cars and had cake, streamers, and music inside. His parents joked that because we got engaged on the 4th of July we were losing our independence and freedom not gaining it.