You have two people from completely different cultures, born in different countries, speaking different languages, listening to completely different music and eating different foods. A woman who even doesn't know anything about hunting a deer (yes, you heard that right) and a man who needs to learn to shake his hips to salsa music and you may wonder...how in the world did these two get together? The answer is a very long story that this post will not allow me to fully explain, but I can tell you that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is the One who orchestrated it all and even knew about it before time began.

I, Djanira, was born in Puerto Rico but lived most of my life in Maryland and moved to St. Augustine, Florida the summer of 2022. I've been a single mom for over 16 years and my son went off to college, my adult daughter already living her life in FL, and I was excited to start a new chapter in St. Augustine pursuing my Doctorate of Physical Therapy at the University of St. Augustine. Mission number one was to find a church and after many months, I was grounded at Church on the Rock, my Serve Team t-shirt was on, life was good, and I had MY plans. (*Laughter begins here*) It's January, 2023, and our church begins our annual 21 days of prayer and fasting. We have daily prayer services, and I see this man every single day deep in prayer, worshiping God, completely leaned in and I am intrigued and attracted to his posture and am curious about his story (I promise I only wanted to know who he was and that was it). Well, it would be many months before I would find anything out about this tall, bald, very handsome man because he was a rock who completely ignored me. Haha, ok, friends it is...maybe?

Lets fast forward to summer/fall 2023, where my feelings for Jeremiah have grown but I am convinced they aren't going anywhere so I declare to the Lord, "I don't know what's happening in his life, but clearly this isn't meant to be" so, I firmly decide to tell my heart to shut it down and move on. The day I decide this, Jeremiah decides to slip into my Instagram DM and wants to talk to share what has been happening in his life for the past couple of years. Those of you close to Jeremiah understand this part of the story. For those of you who don't, Jeremiah has experienced what I experienced and have had to heal from many moons ago. The story of divorce and hurt and healing amazingly doesn't end there because we serve a compassionate and merciful God who restores and heals and makes all things new.

Jeremiah's pursuit began by suggesting we start a journal for each other and write in it every day before going on our very first official date. We wrote whatever we felt was on our heart to share for that day and we shared those journals with each other on our first date (which is the picture above!). From those first few entries, a "crazy" love began to grow in each other's hearts for each other that we knew would seem strange or too fast to each other and even to everyone around us. We would laugh and shake our heads but there was a supernatural love flourishing that neither one of us could deny. We grew closer and learned about our strengths and weaknesses, shared our dreams and visons for the future, shared personal stories and were completely vulnerable with each other and completely fell in love.

We believe that our amazing God has brought us together and planned this before time even began. We are a story of redemption and restoration and what God can do between two people who put Him first and love Him wholeheartedly. We are SO excited to begin this journey together, to keep growing with each other, and have so much fun along the way! Our prayer is that you feel that supernatural love and presence of God in our lives at our wedding. We are so in love with each other and are excited to share that love with each and every one of you!