Our story can be summed up in three words: God answers prayers.

That’s the abridged version. The longer version includes some qualifiers:

God answers prayers, but He does so in His own perfect timing and on His own perfect terms.

We understand that now far better than we thought we did then.

Neither of us were thrilled with how long it took to find each other. We were sure we’d be better off if we got the relationship we wanted as soon as possible. We wondered why God would make us wait and not give us the good thing we wanted right away.

We now realize the waiting was for the best.

It was in the waiting that God did His transformative work and showed us His faithfulness. He taught us to rely on Him for our satisfaction. We learned that no romantic relationship would ever satisfy like He does. He kept us from making marriage into an idol.

God also showed us the importance of accepting help from friends and family rather than going it alone.

We would not have found each other had it not been for the many prayers of people who love us and the kindness of some great friends. Thanks to Kelsey, Peter, Fernanda, Chad, and the rest of our friend groups for orchestrating our first interaction on Memorial Day 2023 and our first date a couple weeks later on June 11th.

We couldn’t believe how much we had in common on that first date. We both love Jesus, both serve with the youth groups at our churches, both like to sing and play an instrument (Janell plays piano and Joe, guitar). And even though there were some red flags (Joe hadn’t seen or read Lord of the Rings and Janell was a Cubs fan), we decided to see what God had in store for this relationship.

Over the next 11 months, we wore out the country roads between Janell’s home in DeKalb, and Joe’s in Loves Park. We enjoyed meeting each other’s families, visiting each other’s youth groups, and discovering that we shared a silly and often strange sense of humor. Janell even got Joe to watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy (the extended editions) and Joe converted Janell into a Cardinals fan (it wasn’t that hard).

One of our favorite things to do together is to go on nature walks. One particularly memorable nature walk took place on a beautiful day in May at Rock Cut State Park. We sat down at a picnic table, and Joe suggested that we make this good thing we had going last a lifetime. Janell wholeheartedly agreed and was then surprised to find our families waiting at a picnic shelter to celebrate.

We are so excited to invite you to our wedding and to testify that God is good. His timing is perfect and His grace is more than sufficient. We’re so thankful for the gracious gift He has given us in our relationship and for all of your support along the way. We can’t wait to celebrate God’s goodness with you on October 12, 2024 at 3:00 pm.*

*Unless the Cardinals are playing a playoff game at that time, in which case Joe won’t be able to make it.**

**Just kidding!