From Annaliese's perspective - It was an average Wednesday in October for me; Girl's Group at 6:30, hang out after for a little while, then head over to the University gym for ultimate frisbee at 8:30. This week I had convinced my friend Riley to come with me, which she did not often do.

We drove over to the gym after group ended and were having a conversation as we walked into the gym area. Benches lined the side wall and people mingled before the games started, sharing how their weeks were going. That is when I saw him...sitting alone on a bench, curly hair falling perfectly onto his forehead, was the most handsome man I had ever seen in my life. I stopped mid sentence while talking to Riley and my hand shot to my mouth...thank the Lord he didn't see that.

"Who is HE?" I whispered under my breath to Riley.

Promptly she whipped around to see who I was talking about.

"I think his name is Justin. His brother comes here too, the one who owns the restaurant called Vivir in town."

*Still in complete shock* "How would I NOT have noticed him before now?!"

"Beats me...he has been coming for a while I think."

After that moment the night moved on, 8:40 struck and it was time to pick teams. With guys on one side girls on the other, the frisbee leaders circled us up and counted us off by eights, assigning us colors and a court. I grabbed my color and walked over to my team's court...which happened to also be this guy's court too...hm. (whether that was God's providence or Justin's planning, one can never know for sure).

"Hey! My name is Justin and this is my friend Andrew, what's your name?"

*Trying to keep it together as this model of a man talks to me*

"Hey! I am Annaliese, and this is Alexis!"

"Elyse?"

*Me, internally dying* "No, Annaliese," I said with a laugh. "Most people only hear the first or last part of my name so don't feel bad."

The game starts and we are on a winning spree. During every game Justin and I banter back and forth, matching each other's long distance passes and excited energy. It continued on like this for the entire hour and half we were there, and we had a blast. Once it was all over our team said their farewells and I figured this was the last time I would ever be on his team, but hoped he would be there next week.

Like most nights I waited around at the conclusion of frisbee to mingle with friends and see if they were going to watch the post-frisbee movie at Pastor Matt's. Out of the corner of my eye while I talked to a friend I noticed Justin standing off to the side. This is where I kick myself every. single. time. I reminisce...instead of turning to say goodbye or see if he needed to talk to me, I walked out of the gym and went on with my night.

Fast forward to the next day, I am getting coffee and a sandwich at Tim Hortons but had to park to wait for my food. I'm reading on my phone when suddenly I get a Facebook message request from a Justin Rowan, I don't know a Justin Rowan...

I open up messenger and read the text that I had received, "Hey Annaliese, this is Justin from frisbee..."

Oh. My. Word.

I don't think I have ever screamed so loud in my life as I looked at his profile picture and immediately recognized him. I took a few minutes to calm down before replying and giving him my number to make communication "easier" aka I wanted this man to have my number because duh!

The next day we went out on a date and rest is history. God has been so good throughout it all and I cannot be more thankful for His faithfulness as He has taught Justin and I more and more about what true love is. The more you know the author of love, the more you can give true and pure love.

From Justin's perspective - I first saw Annaliese (I didn’t know her name at the time) at The University of Findlay’s Ultimate Frisbee night when she was with her friend, Samantha. Up to that point, I was attending Ultimate Frisbee regularly, and I never noticed her there before. To this day, I still do not understand how I never noticed such a beautiful and athletic woman like her at frisbee, even though she says she had been going consistently as well. We both believe it was the Lord shielding our eyes from each other until the moment was right. But that first time I saw her, her and her friend joined our last frisbee game for the night. Annaliese was on the other team, while her friend was on mine. I thought Annaliese, with her dark brown hair in a ponytail, a dark gray tank top, and seafoam leggings was the most attractive woman I have ever had the pleasure to lay my eyes on. Subconsciously, I drifted to her and began to guard her without even realizing it. We never spoke, and that was it for our first interaction. Boring, right? Praise the Lord, it did not end there!

I was not hopeful that she would return to frisbee since I had never noticed her before, but I remember showing up to frisbee, looking around for that woman. She did not show up the week after that, so I thought she was just there as a one time thing, never to show up again. The week after that, there was a sliver of hope that she would show up, so when I got there, I started looking around again. There she was. Running around the track with her beautiful dark brown hair up in a ponytail, a blue tank top, and black and tan leggings. My heart stopped for a bit, knowing that she was going to be here all night...not that I would have the confidence to go up and speak with her, but at least she was there!

As frisbee commenced, we gathered around in a large circle to count off teams, I stood there, catching myself glancing over at her. Each person was counted off, and Annaliese got her number and several people later, I got my number. The same number. The same number as that beautiful dark brown haired girl. I acted all nonchalant, grabbing a jersey and walking over to the team. A wave of confidence rushed over me, and I introduced myself to Annaliese, along with a teammate I have played with before. She told me her name was Annaliese, but hearing her talk and just seeing how beautiful she was up close made me forget everything she just said.

I goofed and got her name completely wrong, and after several tries, I finally said it right. Annaliese. I was riding high on that wave of confidence and was able to talk to Annaliese, joke with her, and even flirt that whole night, which is something I usually can not do whatsoever. She was just so inviting and kind, it was so easy to be comfortable around her! So she was beautiful, athletic, funny, kind, and easy to be comfortable around. Got it. The last point in frisbee happened, finishing off the night of frisbee. Our team parted ways and packed up to head out. Remember that wave of confidence earlier? Well, it dried up. She was standing, talking with her friend by the exit, and I could not bring myself to go up, interrupt their conversation, and maybe try to get her number. I just could not do it. So, I left and drove home. Oh well, she will be there next time, right? A whole week later. Seven days. 168 hours.

I got home and realized I could not wait that long. And so, the detective work began of trying to find her on social media. Let’s search Annaliese. Annaliese what? What’s her last name? I did not get her last name! How do you spell Annaliese? Annalise? Analiese? Annalease? We will try searching Annaliese on Facebook. Annaliese is a unique name, it should be relatively easy to find. Hmm, no one looks familiar in the search. How about her friend? I knew her friend from church, so I looked her up on Facebook and went to her friends list.

There she was. Annaliese Rizzo. Her profile picture was her with Meemaw, her grandma.

After finishing doing my “detective” work, I decided I would message her the next day. The next day, I opened up Facebook and went to message her. We were not friends, so I was not sure if this plan of messaging her would even work, but I had to try! It felt like it took me 2 hours to type the two sentences I had. With my hands shaking, I pressed the send button and threw my phone away from me so I would not be constantly checking or waiting for a buzz. I got back to work and expected the worst. No text. But 4 minutes later, my phone buzzed. That could not be her, but I checked because I was too anxious not to. It was her. It was Annaliese with a response! I could not believe it! She gave me her number in the message so we could text that way, and we set up a date for the next day, and the rest is history! It has been such a wonderful journey, and we are very excited to see what the Lord has in store for us and how He will use us for His glory!

Registry