She was the world of my dreams from the start.

Somewhere deep down, I knew that, if I should be so lucky, I’d be following her spark for the rest of ever. It just took me a while to realize what that meant.

We bonded quickly as kids from the Dakotas who somehow found ourselves in seminary in New Jersey. This love of ours is kinda sponsored by the Lutheran Group at PTS. The Lutheran Group met for lunch on the first Friday of every month, and one of the first things that I noticed and loved about Hayley was that at those lunches, she was the only one who could hear (and who would laugh at and give back) my quiet banter. I loved seeing her at the Lutheran Group’s Holden Evening Prayer every Thursday after the one class we had together. I tried to sit by her every chance I could get in that class. With her, it was like I could open a door into a level of tenderness and care-free joy that was always locked for me before. There was a vibrant hum that I didn’t know life could have.

And so it happened that she became my fastest best friend ever. I found myself happy, eager even, to drop everything to be with her, every chance I got.

And I very well might be the most introverted person I know (!).

And yet I’ve always found a home with her.

After she graduated, we spent the next year being really close friends. I looked forward to every call, every text, and every second I got to behold her face. I would let her in to parts of my personality that I wouldn’t give to anyone else. She would watch the sermons I preached and live-tweet text me her responses, and I loved listening her sermons on my way back from my own church and telling her how amazing they were. When the opportunity came up to potentially change field education churches, I really really really really considered trying to hop over to her church, even though it was totally impractical. She took a train to Newark when I invited her to meet my brother and me at the Dodge Poetry Festival that October. I invited her (and no one else) to cuddle baby goats at a retreat-of-sorts for my field education pastor and me. Whenever she came to Princeton, suddenly the only thing that mattered was being with her. When both of us had a really hard spring, I got to hold her sorrows as she so gracefully held mine.

All of that made it really hard to move halfway across the country to South Dakota for Clinical Pastoral Education that summer. As we said our last goodbyes, we each hung around a little longer, trying to stretch that moment into forever. The next day I did, in fact, go. And she called me every day of the road trip. We kept in touch with extra energy that summer.

And then, in August, she invited me come see her in Rapid City. I was hesitant at first—Rapid City was five hours away, on the other side of the state, and I was road tripping back to Princeton later that week. But the more I thought about it, the more I knew I couldn’t not take that opportunity to be with her.

So I went. And it was there that I realized I was in love with her. I felt like I was walking on clouds everywhere we went together. When we hiked up to her favorite peak, I wanted to stay there with her forever.

And I left, even though that was the last thing I wanted to do. I drove back letting this new revelation sink and settle in my mind, “Huh—I think I’m in love with Hayley Moe!”

We exchanged a few emails over the next few days, which might seem weird, but email is a customary form of communication for us. With each email, I thought more and more, “Ok, I think she might like me too!” And then I met her in New York, and after hours of conversation I told her how I felt and—BEST NEWS EVER!!!!—found out that she was in love with me, too. And so it was that I became the luckiest person on the face of ever. She was the world of my dreams from the start. And every sacred second with her since has been, and—AMAZINGLY—will continue to be, the greatest gift of my life. Now, amazingly, the home I’ve always found with her will be our forever, together.

Registry

Your very love & presence in our lives are gifts enough! For those who wish to give a gift - we have listed a few cash funds we are saving for and a few tangible items. But again - we are flat out grateful for your love, no matter what!