I had a sense even before meeting Jaamar that he was someone I could see myself with long-term. In contrast to other first dates and even former relationships, I never experienced that strong sense of optimism like I did with Jaamar.

Prayers for a Partner

In February of last year, a friend from church invited me to join her and other single women to pray for Christian husbands. I thought it would be a one-time event, but we began praying weekly. I was simultaneously prayer-journaling on my own and by July had grown frustrated, accusing God of being stubborn and whining about failed relationships. God's reply was simple:

"Stop. Stop pitying yourself, My beloved. I have a man for you and I will bring you two together in just the right season if you wait just a little bit longer--6 months in fact. That's how long until I bring your waiting and wondering to fruition, to completion and fulfillment in a marriage covenant by My word and power."

Coffee Meets Bagel

In December, I reactivated an online dating account. It had been a few years since I'd tried online dating and I'd been hesitant to meet people through the internet again after my last relationship with a guy I met online ended with his arrest for domestic violence. A couple of my housemates were simultaneously using a dating app called "Coffee Meets Bagel" and convinced me to join so they could get more "beans", a virtual commodity that enables a variety of features within the app. Within a few days, Jaamar and I connected and began to chat.

Looking for More Fans?

Jaamar lived in Portland and I thought it was odd we were matched because my settings were for the Seattle area. I could see from his profile pictures that Jaamar lead worship music when I said I'd like to hear him sometime, he directed me to playlists of his albums on Spotify as well as Facebook band pages. I thought, "Great. This guy uses online dating to get more 'likes' on his fan pages."

Blogs and Harmonica

But then I sent him a link to my latest blog post and he not only read it but responded with a LONG, thoughtful reflection and said he would like to read more! Meanwhile I started listening to his albums on Spotify and finally asked the question that had been plaguing me: "I can't help but wonder how a good-looking Christian single guy who plays guitar and leads worship doesn't have 25,000 women after him! :)" Jaamar replied that he was blushing, told me the story behind the song I was listening to and gave me his phone number. Then he said, "25,000 is crazy, but having one very-hot-and-super-interesting-woman-who-writes-blogs-and-plays-harmonica coming after me...now that would be awesome:)" Game changer! I realized then he was interested in ME as more than a fan number.

Instant Click

We chatted back and forth constantly for about a week then began to FaceTime through Facebook Messenger, talking every night for two or three hours. About a week prior to meeting in-person, Jaamar wrote me a lengthy email telling me how he wanted to know everything about me. It was the kind of words most women dream of hearing from a lover, but particularly someone like me who's love language is words of affirmation!

When we met in-person, we clicked as well. Jaamar put his arm around my shoulder and it felt natural. I took him adventuring around Seattle to a water tower, green house, Christmas light's display on Candy Cane Lane and my favorite Indian restaurant where I'm friends with the owners who are from Bangladesh (he said it was attractive to hear me chat with them in Bengali). He even got to have dinner with my housemates and meet my best friend!

"Love You Forever"

New Year's Eve Jaamar gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers with a poem he had written and told me "I love you." Later that weekend, he said, "I don't just love you; I want to love you forever." The words from my prayer journal six months prior popped in my mind: "6 months...that's how long until I bring your waiting and wondering to fruition, to completion and fulfillment in a marriage covenant by My word and power." A couple weeks later, Jaamar brought up the "M" word: "How soon can we start talking about marriage?" he asked. Normally I would've thought he was crazy, but I recognized that he was a fulfillment of the promise God had spoken of to me in July. Plus, I felt additional peace having discovered a ton of mutual connections with his family and leaders in the church where my office is.

Modern Gentleman

Recently I told Jaamar he is the "perfect modern gentleman" right after he opened the door for me to drive. He embraces life as much as I do and enjoys trying new things whether that's cooking or rollerblading! Being long-distance, we've both gotten each other to try new methods of communication: he introduced me to a video-messaging app called Marco Polo and I introduced him to using Bitmojis (cartoon-characters to look like yourself) and convinced him to reactivate SnapChat just so our characters could be together! I"m looking forward to taking him on many more world-wide adventures in our upcoming years together :)

I had a sense from the very beginning that Emily wasn't like anyone else I had ever met before. Although she had similarities to what I had thought would be ideal, she just did things differently. And it was very alluring. She is outgoing, but not overbearing. She a thinker and likes strategy games, but doesn't overthink things in a way that prevents her from action...and she doesn't even play chess! She also likes to be active, but prefers climbing a wall to playing basketball. Different. But awesome. And I quickly began to see how God was intertwining our stories.

Prayers for a Partner

I've always been praying for my future wife, but in the last year or so it had gotten much more intense. I would journal and ask God when I would finally get to meet 'her' and would often wonder when it would get to the point where I would allow myself to settle for less than God's best just so I could become a husband and eventually a father. I'd felt like I'd tried everything that I knew how to do including online dating, meeting women in bars and even blind dates. Nothing seemed to work. So I kept praying. It was all I had left.

Coffee Meets Bagel

I was watching 'Shark Tank' a couple years ago and saw a pitch for a new dating app. Although the creators didn't get a deal on the show, I remember thinking that it looked much better than other dating sites I'd tried, and so within a couple days I had created a profile. I met a few people in two years, but had gotten to the point where I didn't want to invest any more money into it. But I would go on the app every day and collect the free "beans" that were available, just in case someone caught my eye. Then one random night in December, after I was tired from playing basketball, I saw that I'd gotten a message from Emily. We starting chatting, and within a couple days, I knew I wouldn't need to worry about collecting any more free beans.

Looking for more Fans?

Meeting people is always tricky. Especially people I've never seen before. There's always this balance of trying to impress people and show them how cool I am, and giving them a reason to be intrigued, while also sounding calm and humble and not coming across as arrogant, or (maybe even worse,) uninteresting. So when Emily asked me about my music, I just figured I would direct her to where she could find out for herself if she liked it, and that way, I wouldn't have to talk about it.

Blogs and Harmonica

Around the same time that she was finding out about my music, I was finding out that she played harmonica. This was great news to me and I became really curious. Then I found out that she wrote a blog and just wanted to read everything that she'd written. I knew that reading what she wrote would tell me a LOT about the person she is. It was a way to see what she's really like, and what she really cares about, and I was very interested. So that night I read as many blogs as I could and came away VERY impressed. She was different. And I liked it.

Instant Click

After a few days of messaging back and forth, I knew I wanted to meet in person. But since that wasn't possible right away, I began sending videos just to try to show her more of who I was. Then one day I saw that she had sent me and old video of her and her friend talking about some crazy adventure they'd gone on. I clicked on it instantly. It was over 11 minutes, but I probably watched it 3 or 4 times that first night. And at that point, before we even met in person, I was convinced that she was awesome, and that I would do everything I could to let her know my thoughts. So the next morning, I woke up at 6 AM on a Saturday and I did what I knew best. I started writing and composed what would eventually become an email that I sent to her, just telling her how I felt and that I wanted to get to know her even more. By the time we actually met in person, the only thing weird about meeting was that it wasn't weird at all! We had such a great time, and it just seemed so natural and easy. Shortly after that, she showed me how to find even more videos of her on Facebook. Each one of them became an instant click.

Love You Forever

I had big plans for New Year's Eve, and although I wasn't sure exactly how I was going to pull them all off, or even if I was, the one thing I knew I wanted to do was to tell Emily that I loved her. I know that some people throw around words and phrases very loosely, and even flippantly, but for me this was a big deal. In my mind, once I said those words, I was going to forever live like they were true. New Year's Eve was an amazing night where I learned both how hard it was to make plans with Emily in advance, as well as how fun and exciting it was to go on a spontaneous adventure where my plans meant very little. And soon after that, I felt like I needed to expound on what exactly it was I meant when I told her that I loved her. That was when my preparation collided with improvisation, and I told her that I wanted to love her 'Forever'. I had seen and learned enough. She had captured my heart. And I was ready for forever.

Modern Gentleman

I remember being a teenager and thinking about the type of person, father and husband I wanted to be someday. I had grown up learning about what it means to be a gentleman and decided to make that my goal. I wanted to be kind and to serve people. Always. No matter what job or status I had. Especially towards my wife. I had an admiration for men when, often from afar, I would see them serve their wife, and open the door for her. So I would practice those behaviors, not just in romantic relationships, but in every relationship. Whenever I could. I would open doors for strangers and prefer others to go ahead of me in line, and try my best to pay attention to those around me to see if I could help in any way. Even while driving, I would teach myself to be aware of my surroundings and try to serve others as much as possible. So when I hear others refer to me as a gentleman, it really is an honor. It's a realization that I can learn new habits. And I can be the person I've always wanted to become.

Ready for Take Off

Being with Emily is awesome because she challenges me to get out of my comfort zone and to do things that would be really fun, even though I might not do them on my own. At one point she sent me a bitmoji where she was looking out through the window of an airplane that said "Ready for Take Off." I saved that picture as a reminder to myself that I was. I wasn't sure what was coming, and I wasn't sure exactly where we'd be going. But I was ready for it. We've already had so many different adventures where she challenges me to try new things, (like snowshoeing and rollerblading and yoga, as well as a ton of new food). It's something that I've always wanted to do, but just needed some encouragement to step out. Now it's gotten to the point where I'm looking for new opportunities, and looking forward to encountering new adventures with her. I still don't know exactly where we're going, or even how we're going to get to where we're going. But I'm so excited to go there with Emily. Even if the plans change mid-flight, and we end up somewhere else. I'm ready for take off!

Our ceremony will be held at the bride's home church in Seattle, Rainier Avenue Church.

Following the ceremony, guests are invited to join us for a picnic-style reception at Seward Park, located within a mile from the church (you can even walk or bike there if you're used to alternative forms of transportation!). Play yard games, take a picture in the photo booth and paste it with a note in our guest book or leave a video message. Kids old and young will enjoy a nearby swing set (entire families welcome but no childcare provided). Need a break from the crowd? Take a stroll through one of the park's many trails or saunter down to the lake for a breath-taking view of Mt. Rainier.

We're still working on details for the food but dinner and dessert are in order. Plan to stay past dusk to enjoy the ambiance of globe lights and glo-in-the-dark hula hoops!