We’re {finally} getting married!

Joseph and Lauren met as most high-school-aged kids do in Northwest Indiana - working part-time at Strack and Van Til. A few awkward conversations and an exchange of numbers later, she was cowering into his comforting arms as zombies quickly took over the world - at least in the movie. He knew early on that she was The One, but it took a night of star-gazing in the backyard for her to realize it. The rest, they say, is a long and arduous journey involving the Marine Corps, a lot of dropped calls, and too-short trips of leave every so often. Catch your favorite lovebirds at your local trivia night or backpacking somewhere beautiful!

With the military creating impassable distance between the sweethearts, Joseph and Lauren began planning for an engagement/marriage that could put an end to their distance. On the cusp of 2017, Lauren and Joseph traveled to Chicago to spend a week away from their small town. They visited museums and celebrated the New Year by sleeping - like any normal, young couple. On January 2, 2017, Joseph and Lauren went to dinner at a favorite of theirs, Devon Seafood Grill on Chicago Ave, as was their tradition. It was when the dessert was set on the table that Joseph worked up the courage to ask Lauren to marry him, using her mother's engagement ring. She said, "Yes" immediately! Unfortunately, things didn’t go to plan, and the wedding was forced to reside at the back of their minds. But, with a little bit of patience and magic, things have finally worked out!

Life sometimes hands us miracles, and sometimes it takes and it takes with no qualms and an apathetic shrug of the shoulders. I think the greatest lesson I've learned in the years Joseph and I have spent "together", is that patience is not always kind. Patience is not the domesticated animal that sits loyally by the door; patience is the starved, caged beast that paces under lock and key, waiting for release. These past few years have been some of the most defining of our lives, and I feel blessed that we have walked through the flames with few falters along the way. When we met, we were young and naive teenagers with stars in our eyes and larger-than-life dreams of exactly how we pictured our future together. As Life does, those dreams were tweaked and scrapped with new developments and plans, and we were left with a mess of half-formed ideas and pencils tucked behind our ears in exasperated anticipation of new changes. I can't say that we perfectly handled everything that was thrown at us, but we could always reach for each other and know that our love and support could get us through even the most difficult of times. I sit here typing this listening to a love songs playlist at midnight; the world is soft and quiet on the edges here. I sit here with no knowledge of what our future holds; I have no idea where we’ll be in a year, or what will happen to put us there. And yet, I haven't felt so at peace in a long while. There is a gentleness in letting the universe continue on its course; I am content in the thought that one day soon, my fiancee will be at the end of an aisle. We'll cry and give emotional speeches as our closest family and friends surround us (some more relieved than others that we finally made it to that point). He will slip a ring onto my finger, and I will do the same, and someone will pronounce us husband and wife. And the rest of our happily ever after? I think I'll leave it to fate, as I have since the first "goodbye" to the last "hello."