We had met loosely a few times on prior occasions, but there was one key moment that stands out above the rest. On May 13th of 2023, Dan was attending a wedding of a good friend in Knoxville, Tennessee. Prior to the wedding Mass, Dan had some time to spare, so he and his good friend Matthew went out on a little excursion. This included hunting for some pants at Lululemon (which he had never been to before) and exploring downtown Knoxville, which had a pop-up festival. After the festival, the two friends went on a search and destroy mission for hair gel. They were entrusted with this task by the groom-to-be. Amidst their travel, they received a call from the groom asking their ETA to the church. The mass was in 20 minutes, and the friends accidentally mixed up the time. A completely legal U-turn was executed as the two raced back towards the church going the appropriate speed limit. They breathlessly ran into the church apologizing to the groom about missing his hair-gel. He smiled, quickly forgave us, and invited them into the church to sit. Upon sitting, Dan looked across the room and his eyes fell upon a BEAU-tiful daughter of God across the main aisle. Both softly smiled and waved. She had been looking at him since he walked in, since she was the wedding photographer awaiting the procession to begin. Both knew one another through a mutual friend, Emily, who was best friends with Jillian during their college years at the University of North Texas, and Emily was Dan’s current teammate in FOCUS. Dan and Jill were able to finally talk a little more intentionally during the reception. Little to Dan’s knowledge, she often took photos with him in them - coincidence? I think not. After the blessed wedding reception of Dan’s friend, Dan was planning on inviting out a few men for a drink to celebrate the newly married. Jillian had overheard, and inquired if she could join so long as they went somewhere to shoot pool - she claimed to be “pretty good”. Dan, in disbelief, was struck by this comment since he hadn’t met a woman of his age who was good at pool (Dan himself was a slight pool shark thanks to his Dad and many others). They ended up playing on the same team against two of Dan’s friends. To this day, she claims she was “distracted” during the game, which had lessened her performance. Dan, on the other hand, naturally thrives under pressure, so he carried them to victory. During the downtime of the game, the future couple slowly caught up about the past few months since they had met. By the end of the night they departed to separate places. After she had left, Dan felt at a loss for some hidden reason. He quickly recognized that it was due to saying goodbye. After a few days of texting, Dan finally scheduled a call with her to ask her out on a date. The rest is now history…

Dan invited me to join him for Thanksgiving in Wisconsin with his family. I had a feeling a proposal would happen during this trip. A dead giveaway should’ve been when Dan said he’d be wearing a suit for daily Mass because “it was a holiday”, but I was convinced in my mind that there was no way he would propose on Thanksgiving Day which was also his niece’s birthday. We began the day with Mass and prayer at a local parish, Our Lady of Lourdes - if you know me, you know of my devotion. His mom surprised us by joining for Mass, which was really special for us. After Mass, Dan asked me to pray a rosary with him kneeling in front of the St. Joseph statue. A perfect way to prepare both our hearts for what was about to ensue… After the rosary, Dan invited me to read a passage I had never read from Three To Get Married by Venerable Fulton Sheen, which is a book we had been reading together. Then, he asked for us to stand closer to St. Joseph. I still had no idea what was about to happen. Dan is always so intentional, so none of this seemed out of the ordinary. I began to read aloud the most piercing paragraph I’ve ever read… Speaking more slowly as the passage continued… At the end, I was at a loss for words and silent for a few minutes. Little did I know (because of my big curly hair), that as I was reading, Dan had been slowly backing away to get down on one knee behind me. I didn’t realize he was no longer next to me. I looked to find him, and he was down on one knee with the ring box open. “Jillian Adrianne Lim, will you marry me?” and I responded with the most joy-filled yes over and over again. We then proceeded to kneel in front of the Holy Family to entrust our engagement, future marriage, and future family to Our Lady and St. Joseph. He could’ve proposed to me with a ring pop, and I still would’ve had the most exuberant yes. :)