Funny story...we were entering our Junior Year of college and Andrew's new apartment had a slight delay in construction leaving him with no other option but to crash on one of his friend's couches for a couple weeks. Well, it turns out that friend was Kathleen's roommate and well, the rest is history... Just kidding! Well, not about the roommate part. Andrew really did sleep on Kathleen's couch for a couple weeks but other than a few blushing hellos and an awkward encounter of Kathleen walking out into the living room in her robe, nothing really came of it. It wasn't until a couple weeks after Andrew moved into his apartment that Kathleen and Andrew ran into each other at a party (S/O to the Ranger House) and well, now the rest is history... We'd like to thank the City of Harrisonburg for hiring a subpar construction company, Grace Young for offering up her home, and The Ranger House for making all our dreams come true.

It was the week of Thanksgiving 2019 and we were leaving Tuesday of that week for Kathleen's parents' house. Andrew was scheduled to deploy the first week in December so we knew this would be our last holiday together for a bit. We'd talked about marriage constantly but had agreed to wait on an engagement until after Andrew returned from deployment. The week before Thanksgiving we decided to start looking at rings, you know, just to get an idea. After about 10 minutes in the store, Kathleen found a ring she absolutely loved. The gemologist said it would take 4-6 weeks for the ring to be ready but we informed him that we were just looking at the time. Well, a couple days after, Andrew went back to the store and explained that he needed the ring by Tuesday...it was Sunday. And by some miracle, the ring was ready and in his pocket for the long drive to Maryland. Wednesday morning we woke up in Monrovia and while Kathleen was in the shower, Andrew asked Kathleen's parents for their blessing. A couple hours later, in Kathleen's parents backyard, in front of both their families, Andrew got down on one knee. "Yes" was said multiple times, tears were shed, and lots of hugs were given. We're so excited to share this next chapter in our lives with all of you. And what better place to do so than where it all began? See you in Monrovia!