God has a plan for our lives. Few things make this more apparent to me than reflecting on the story of how Makayla and I went from strangers, to friends, to husband and wife. Neither of us expected to be married before the age of 30. Neither of us could have anticipated the gift of reentering each other’s lives. God was positioning us, growing us, leading us in such a way that now, looking back, fills me with awe.

I first met Makayla in 2017 at the Blainebrook bowling alley. What I had at first written off as a disappointing, but not unexpected, 80-point game, was actually the first time I met my future wife (so I got at least one perfect ten). I would not see her again for a few years, but eventually my friendship with her brother, Connor, would be the root of how Makayla and I grew to know each other more.

Makayla is a phenomenal dancer. This will be no surprise to anyone who knows her. She loves to swing dance, foxtrot, Latin dance, even just shake a leg in the kitchen. I, too, can shake a leg in the kitchen, but that was not always the case (as will be no surprise to anyone who knows me). When I was in college, around 2019, I was introduced to swing dancing for the first time. Friends and I would go down to 301 in Northeast Minneapolis and, timidly and stiffly, I would dance the night away. This is where I ran into Makayla again. My friend Alec reintroduced us and asked her to walk us through some swing dancing basics. I remember her joy and enthusiasm and how gracious she was with me, despite my inexperience and “overly expressive shoulders” (not her quote). Over that summer, I found myself integrated into her friend group: game nights, movies, cabin trips, dancing. Through this time, I got a glimpse into the person that Makayla Schmidt is. She is kind, thoughtful, smart, and adventurous. Makayla sees the world as full of challenges and opportunities, and she wants to bring the people around her with her on that adventure. I could see her seeking after even hermetic Jacob Wilson, and I felt honored.

I remember one post-swing-dancing walk with all of our friends across the Hennepin Avenue Bridge where we discovered that we were both Christians. Her love for Jesus has always been my favorite quality of hers. She invited me to join her at Vespers, a Sunday night worship event at Bethel University. I had no car at the time, so she would drive down to the University of Minnesota to chauffeur me to and from the event every week. We would talk about our friends, our lives, and about Jesus, sometimes parked in front of my apartment long after we had arrived. I specifically remember one night when God called me to pray with her. Not just pray for her when I got home, but pray with her then. So I prayed with her aloud, not knowing it would be the first of many such prayers.

It was a sweet time of getting to know each other and growing our friendship as well as our friendships with many of our close friends to this day. Had you asked me at the time if I liked her… yeah, I liked her. From what I understand, she liked me too, but it was not the right timing for us. Not yet anyway. God had a plan.

It was at this point that the Covid lockdown happened and we lost touch with each other. We missed dancing, talking, laughing, and praying. I missed my friend. Eventually, it felt like maybe God was pushing us in different directions. I was finishing up college in 2021 and looking for my first job, and Makayla was busy with her undergrad studies. We kept learning new lessons about who we were, what we want, and where God was calling us.

We would cross paths again in the summer of 2022 a couple of times, including at the State Fair, when neither of us knew the other was going to be there. Immediately we fell into the friendship we had before, like no time had passed, and I found in her the same kind, thoughtful, smart, adventurous person she had always been. I also saw the ways that she had grown and changed since we last spent time together. I remember listening to her excitedly talk about her research with lasers, and hearing her passion had me grinning from ear to ear. I had just returned from a mission trip in Tanzania, and being able to share that experience with her was really special to me. The day flew by, and I walked away thinking that I would really like to have more of her in my life.

God’s timing is better than anything I could have planned, and He had been setting up dominoes for a long time. In November of 2022, my roommate Alec and I drove from Minneapolis to the Notre Dame campus to visit Makayla’s siblings, Connor and Madison. Makayla was also visiting them, and that weekend she was incredibly bold (by Makayla standards). When I had left a crowded game night to read, she joined me. She texted me to try peppermint tea when my stomach was upset. When I came in from a snowball fight, she had to warm my hands with hers. I laugh now thinking about how that night Connor decided that he must set me up with one of his friends, and he proceeded to scroll through his phone looking for potential matches for me. It was later that night that I brought up to him that fact that I was smitten with Makayla. The next morning as everyone was packing up the cars, I asked Makyala, very smoothly, and with my heart thumping, if she wanted to go on a date with me. Blessedly, she said yes. I guess I was pretty bold that weekend too.

Our first date was dinner at the Tavern Grill and bowling at Blainebrook. She was beautiful, smart, kind, and thoughtful; all of the things I knew her to be as a friend and more. We went to museums and concerts, accidentally attended youth hockey games, painted, cooked, danced, and on December 23rd in the Renovation Church parking lot, in the same car that we used to pray together in, I asked her to be my girlfriend. From then on, God has blessed our relationship in so many ways. Makayla is my number one supporter and encourager, and I am hers. We learn from each other, push each other, and love each other. I am blessed to go through good times and hard times with her.

Soon I found myself setting up a dinner for three with her parents, and, after Linda scared me half to death by jokingly asking where Makayla was, we sat down for delicious homemade tacos that I was way too amped up to eat. I asked for their wisdom and their blessings. And so it was on June 13th of 2024, that Makayla and I went swing dancing at 301 with all of our friends. Partway through the night, I invited Makayla to join me on a walk where we talked about our friends, about life, and about Jesus. I proposed to her there on the Hennepin Avenue Bridge. We were both overjoyed, and it was a surreal moment. My favorite part was when we simultaneously asked “can we pray?” and getting to hold her and praise the Lord with her before walking back to our loving friends and family waiting to welcome us with hugs and dancing.

God has been so good to me. I see how he has been weaving together our love story from before I knew it was a love story. And though I do not know all that the future holds, I know who holds the future. Thank you to all the people that made this story possible. I am so excited to celebrate with all of you, and I am beyond excited to start the next chapter of our story and see the plan that God has for our lives.

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