It was a gloomy March afternoon in Shanghai, China, and 11 year old Emma was walking through her Aunt Lynne and Uncle Scott’s (the Liptaks) neighborhood, Beverly Hills with her cousin Madelyn. The Stevenson’s had an amazing opportunity to visit their college best friends in their last few months of living in China, and all the kids were exploring the city and seeing the Liptak’s lives internationally. Madelyn (the Liptaks oldest daughter) and Emma were just coming back from visiting her school, Concordia International School, when a group of kids ran by. All Emma can remember about those children was they were boys with buzzcuts and basketball shorts on, and Madelyn mentioning something offhanded like, “oh yeah, those are our neighbors, the Brantinghams.”

Years later, Emma had just come back from her gap year and was taking online classes part time at the local community college and working during COVID and was exploring her college transfer options. She primarily was looking for schools out of state, without really any real reason why, and one particular school in Seattle happened to find its way on to her list of schools to apply to. Months later, basically on a whim, she decides on transferring to that school despite never having seen it in person. Months after that, she found herself flying across the country and moving into a tiny dorm room at Seattle Pacific University. She then attended orientation where she met two of her future bridesmaids who were orientation leaders (Charlotte and Jenna).

Somewhere else on campus, Sam was gearing up to lead his orientation group. He was starting his second year at Seattle Pacific and was looking forward to hanging out with friends, starting his new job at a coffee roasters, and making (and selling) coffee from his dorm room.

Emma was hoping to make friends and hang with her girls, and was blessed by getting close to her suitemates. Her plan for this year was to girl boss her way through her Linguistics degree and be with the girlies. Little did both Sam and Emma know, their years would not turn out quite the way they had been expecting.

Disclaimer: This part of the story would not have happened had it not been for Emma and Sam's friends Jenna Osburn and Zachary Starkey. So thank you, Jenna and Starks.

Jenna and Emma had met during Orientation, in which Jenna and her roommate (both of which were going to become two of Emma's future bridesmaids) Charlotte Howell were her orientation leaders. The three became incredibly close, and became even closer when Emma's suitemates, Haley Peralta and Jewel Garcia, (also future bridesmaids) moved into the room next door. The five girls were inseparable, and Emma was looking forward to a year in which she would be a "strong, independent, academic girlie, who just hung out with her girls and not be distracted by a boy/boys" (Emma, 2021).

This all drastically changed one fateful night, in October. Jenna and Emma had decided to go to a worship night in which Jenna's new friend Starkey (Zach) was leading in a dorm lobby. Jenna and Emma found themselves chatting with Starkey after the worship night, when he asked them if they wanted to join him bouldering (rock climbing) the next day. The girls agreed, eager to try something they had never done before with a new friend.

Emma was under the impression that it would be only the three of them (Starkey, Jenna, and herself) climbing that day, but after Starkey picked them up in his bright blue truck, he proceeded to drive around campus and pick up several other people to come climbing with them. One of which, Emma remembers distinctly, was a tall, curly-headed boy, whom they picked up from the side of the road, and was introduced as Starkey's-roommate-who-was-skipping-class-to-go-climbing. He greeted the other passengers, but didn't say much else.

Once they arrived at the climbing gym, the climbers separated according to their levels, with Jenna and Emma sticking to the beginner routes, and the boys to the more skilled ones, so naturally the group didn't mix much.

After about an hour of climbing, the girls were tired and decided to go observe their companions' skills at the more complicated routes. Emma sat down a few feet away from Starkey's roommate, and thought to herself, "Let's make a new friend! I'll get to know this kid."

Then, she turned to him and said, "So, Ben, where are you from?"

There was a long, awkward silence, as he stared at her. Maybe it was only a few seconds, but it felt like forever to her. She could tell she had said something wrong.

"I was waiting for you to realize my name is Sam, not Ben."

"UHHHH, That's what I said! I totally said Sam not Ben. Yep, definitely said that. You heard me wrong. Anyway.... Where are you from SAM?"

Sam laughed, and Emma felt relieved.

Sam finally answered, "Well, I was born in Virginia, and my family now lives in LA,"

"Cool!"

"Yeah, but I actually grew up in China, for my whole life, since right after I was born."

"Woah! That's so cool! I've actually been to China! It's really cool! Where in China did you live?"

"Oh nice! Yeah we lived in Shanghai,"

"No way! That's where I was. Were you guys ex-pats or missionaries?"

"Ex-pats, how did you know what that--"

"Wait. Did you go to Concordia??"

"WAIT How do you know the name of my school I went to for 12 years?? WHO DO YOU KNOW??"

"This is crazy. Do you know the Liptaks???"

"YOU MEAN MY NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBORS FOR 5 YEARS? YOU MEAN MY OLDEST BROTHER'S CLOSE FRIEND IN HIGH SCHOOL?? YOU MEAN THE FAMILY WHO HELPED US ADOPT OUR LITTLE SISTER??? YEAH, I KNOW THE LIPTAKS!!!!"

Emma and Sam were now definitely the loudest people in the climbing gym, freaking out over this small-world connection between her parents' closest friends and his family's neighborhood community. They began pulling out their phones and comparing their mutual followers on Instagram , Emma then texted her cousin Madelyn, asking her if she remembered the Brantinghams, to which she responded "Which one are you with? Nathan? Aaron? Sam?" (naming the Brantingham boys).

Emma and Sam felt so connected, it was quite possibly the best ice-breaker ever. They couldn't stop talking and started telling their friends about their crazy connection, so many times due to their excitement, even to the point of their friends getting mildly annoyed.

That night, after Sam got back to his dorm room, he sent a video to his mom in which he told his mom about meeting Emma and the connection she had to the Liptaks. He ended the video with, "And don't tell the rest of the family this, but she's also really cute."

Emma and Sam began to date a few months later. Both will tell you that knowing each other felt like the most miraculous thing in the world, the fact that they had crossed paths as many times as they did, had the connections that they had, and finally ended up in the same college. Both will tell you that they felt the hand of God when they look at their story, how the Lord was bringing them together years before they even knew, and that He was preparing them to be exactly who He meant them to be when they were to meet. And now, they can't wait to celebrate with you all, dear readers, and live happily ever after, striving after the Lord and their marriage, together.