Our story starts five years ago...

[Let's set the seen - pre covid the year of 2018]

Koinonia (now base church, the home church for the O'Connor and Jakel families) hosted 20/20, a gathering of young adults from the church who communally do bible study and hangout together. Alexander's attendance was regular and maintained good relationships with the young adult leaders of 20/20. Emily rarely attended these gatherings as she did not have as strong of connections with the group. Emily decided to attend one Sunday night and upon her arrival she noticed that Alexander was there. During the worship portion of the evening Emily was unabashedly staring at Alexander. It was at that moment that Emily started to feel affectionally toward Alexander. From that date on, she attended 20/20 more regularly, and even joined a small group hoping to connect with him. They briefly spoke about their careers and current life events the last 20/20 before the covid shut down. That conversation sparked her interest further.

During the lockdown, 20/20 hosted a few virtual sessions, each time, Emily pondered sending Alex a message. Rachel (Emily's sister-in-law) encouraged Emily to find him on social media and start the conversation. Unfortunately, Alexander only had LinkedIn. Emily wrote and rewrote a message several times, second guessing everything she wrote. She finally decided not to send him a message, of course it would be too weird and forward as they hadn't spoken much in the past.

Emily had continued to keep an eye on Alexander, feeling as though they were meant to connect one day. Emily and Alexander were in different relationships in 2023 and upon taking the time to heal after those breakups, they finally reconnected. Alexander found Emily's profile online and sent her a short novel. Emily didn't see the message for a few days and when attending church that Sunday noticed that he was looking in her direction. When Emily checked her inbox, she just about dropped her phone, she couldn't believe her eyes, he had messaged her!

The two spoke for a week online, sending wickedly long messages, talking about anything and everything. They met in early April for their first date in Waterloo park and immediately hit it off. From there the rest is history.