It was a Thursday night at church. I had been serving with the youth for a while, and leading our greeting team. Kirsten had joined youth a few weeks earlier, however because of the hustle and bustle that accompanies the preparation for a summer camp, our paths didn't intersect right away. About a week or two after we all got back with those little monsters, we settled back in. With all of the excitement surrounding camp, it attracted quite a large group of new volunteers. Since none of these new volunteers had directly pick a team to serve in, we had a free for all frenzy battle of the teams! We stood all of the existing teams up in small groups and one after another, we gave them 30 seconds to scream at the new recruits, telling them why Their team is the best. We all got done with our impromptu team speech, and then the volunteers picked, one after another where they wanted to serve. Well, when it came to be Kirsten's turn to pick, what would you know, she joined my team and we started to serve together. (I later found out it was because she thought it was less work than the others) That night we began a friendship that ran at about a snails pace for quite a while. I noticed how beautiful she was right off the bat, however from where I stood, it seemed as if she hardly noticed me. We would chat from time to time, and we enjoyed each other's company due to the fact that we both always laugh at people's jokes, even the one's that aren't that funny. She apparently tried to flirt with me a few times, but if i'm going to be honest, I did't notice a thing. One day, she "slid into my DM's" She messaged me on instagram, responding to a picture I had posted. We chatted for a while, and the conversation slowly died. But I remember wondering if she liked me. I eventually worked up the courage to message hert, and after some VERY lengthy conversations, with a huge frog in my throat, a lump in my chest and seemingly a flock of birds in my stomach, I asked her on a date.

After much deliberation, I finally made the decision to move back to San Jose and spend some much needed time with my family. So I got a job, packed up, and moved back! I knew God had been calling me to work with the youth, so I got plugged in with a church. I just followed to smell of axe body spray and strawberry lipgloss and joined my church's youth program pretty much right way. I remember it pretty vividly, because the second night there I encountered the man that will be my husband. He was on stage, face FULLY painted with I don't even know what, and was yelling at the top of his lungs to the point that his voice was absolutely gone by the end of the evening. (This is something I have come to realize is actually a regular occurrence for him.) After a month of being on youth leadership I joined his greeting team. But for the record, not because of him. I later found out he took his team pretty seriously, and really did encourage everyone on our team to do our absolute best and really love on this kids. The more I was around him, the more I became impressed by John's drive, his enthusiasm for God, and his work ethic. One day we were goofing around, one of my friends said she saw us and said a prayer for us to start dating. I laughed it off, but started to become interested in him. After pinning to be his friend for a few months, sitting near him at church, conveniently finding ways for us to be near each other, continually starting conversations with him, and unsuccessfully flirting with him. We finally started talking, which led to him asking me out.