Joel and I met through serving on Mayor's Star Council (2016 Class) together. Here's one of the first group photos. See if you can find each of us!

MSC was a lovely experience. We were on the service committee together, and our committee met frequently at Life in Deep Ellum.

Our connection was maintained through MSC events. Here we are at a reunion in 2017. Facebook friendship had been established... and that's about it!

Four years later... Joel reaches out to Poonam to connect for lunch and "talk about Vipassana," which they actually did. Poonam had some suspicions about the real reason he was reaching out... but we took some time to recognize there was a real connection there! Several lunches were eaten at Company Cafe, Poonam shared her collection of essays with Joel, and he invited her to dinner to discuss!

This was taken at Monica's birthday party at the Statler. We became "officially" a couple on Poonam's birthday (7/13/21).

Poonam met the biggest part of Joel's life, his girls! Our first meeting happened at a family favorite: Cane Rosso. We took time to make sure Selah and Haven got to know Poonam well, and vice versa. Lots of Six Flags trips and movie nights, ensued!

We love traveling together! Here we are on the way to Oregon!

Wow! We took a major step together! We moved in the next day and began the fun and hard work of integrating our lives <3

And.... engaged!!! Can't wait to celebrate our journey with you all at the wedding!