Sometimes life surprises you when you least expect it, and sometimes those surprises are the ones that change your life forever.

Lexie and Jeremy met in the fall of 2022. Earlier that year Lexie had decided to search for a new church home with more young adults to establish a faith-based community. In May of 2022, she landed on our church home Immanuel Baptist. Fall of that year Jeremy moved over 400-miles from western PA to good old Lexington, KY. After trying one other church, he decided to give IBC a shot. The second week he attend IBC he saw Lexie walking in late to Sunday School class and that’s when he knew he found the church he was going to attend. After seeing the new guy with his grey sweater and butterfly sticker Bible, Lexie walked over, introduced herself, and threw out a lunch invite with our group. The Mexican restaurant definitely didn’t win him over (he reminds Lexie Rey Azteca back home is far superior any day); however, our conversation over breakout NBA players may have hit a spark. Over the next couple of months after random game nights and church events, we started to get to know each other.

February 17-19th our friend Jess planned a cabin trip to Herrington Lake for a weekend getaway with members of our young adult ministry. From a wild weekend of taco slapping, surprise cookie cakes, sardines in the dark, and homemade Arepas, we found some common ground. That Saturday after some trivial discussion about what the next activity should be, we ventured out on a brisk group walk around the lake houses. Let's say that was the best first walk of many more walks to come.

One of the hot topics from the trip surrounded our basketball backgrounds and given our competitive nature, who could turn down some friendly competition?

After a couple weeks of trash talk, Lexie decided to throw out an invite to play some 1 on 1. Now there were power outages around Lexington at that time, but that wasn’t going to stop Jeremy. He set up a bunch of flashlights at the court at his apartment complex. However, Lexie wasn’t quite aware what she was in for. She found out quite quickly that one, the MAN CAN HOOP, and secondly, playing basketball in the dark is as hard as you think. Leaving the gym, Jeremy walked Lexie to her car and knowing she is sucker for Paul Rudd movies worked up the courage to ask if she wanted to go see the second Ant-Man (smart move).

Shortly after we decided to make a good thing a great thing and made things official. And thus, commenced new “Leremy” adventures. From late-night movies, batting cages, pickleball tournaments, and Indianapolis trips, to 5k's, bike rides, Pennsylvania road trips, family basketball, game nights, softball leagues, Cincinnati tennis tournaments, Pyles reunions, and so much more. Through all the fun times, along with the hard times, we learned (and are continually learning!) how to trust more, communicate better, help each other reach their goals, and grow together towards Christ.

We found our foundation rooted in Christ and his word.

We found a faith-based community and the BEST of friends in our church home.

We shared like-mindedness in our foundational beliefs and core values.

We loved how each other valued their families and envisioned building one of their own.

We bonded over a knack for new adventures, a passion for ALL things sports, a love of snacks, a healthy obsession with march madness, and an addiction to pickleball mania.

We also bonded over our differences. Lexie will try to hop on to the Steelers fandom as long as they're not playing the Bengals (she’ll be a full Steelers fan soon enough!). Jeremy is slowly learning to hate running a little less (in minute increments). Lexie will try to be convinced to eat more protein and Jeremy may choose a few more green foods every now and again. Lexie will be sure to remind Jeremy that traveling is a necessity to life, and Jeremy will remind Lexie that sometimes you have to take a beat. Jeremy will keep trying to convince Lexie that the McDonald's app "makes it worth it", and Lexie will try to convince Jeremy that soup IS a meal!

As Christmas approached Lexie and Jeremy road-tripped up to Indianapolis for his surprise Christmas gift- a Steelers game. With such a cool surprise who would think you could outdo a Steelers game?... Jeremy did of course. On December 16th after playing a little basketball at the NCAA Hall of Fame (as we did on our first date), we took a walk along the waterfront; he asked, she said yes, and we promised to grow together and grow towards God. Then we did what any newly engaged couple would do…go get Potbelly’s sandwiches and watch the Steelers play.

So many people have been involved in our story, from raising us to who we are today, walking with us in different seasons, sharing experiences, laughter, good times, and bad. We can’t wait to share another very special memory with you all on October 11th, the one where the Pyles say “I do”.