Please excuse the lateness of this story being posted. My (Meredith's) excuse is that "we've had a lot to do in a short amount of time". Our story. When people ask how we met, I usually let Simon explain, as he has more words to describe it, and they're sweet. He tells people that friends of ours invited him to (my) church (Revive), and eventually, he decided to come. He went to our Sunday School picnic first and met my mom and stepdad. He later met me, and put it together that he had met my mom – "that was her mom!" Simon came to Sunday School a couple weeks later and says that he saw me and 'just felt something different'. He kept looking my way and thought it was odd that his eye kept returning to me. Simon shared about some things he was doing in Kenya that day, and I noticed him as well but pushed it aside. Thankfully, Simon asked our friends about me – "Do you know her?" and "Is she married?". I left class before he could come over and say hello, but our friends reached out to me and asked if they could introduce me to a friend of theirs another week. We met in the church lobby, chatted for a few minutes, and I appreciated how attentive he was to listen about my trips to Kenya, something that we have in common, as Simon was born and raised there.

We met at our friends' home for a game night, and he asked if I'd like to get together sometime for coffee or dinner. I told him yes and gave him my number, but he sadly had to return to Kenya a week later, as his mom passed away. As a friend recently said, sadness and joy can go hand in hand; I believe this has been the case for my dear fiancée this year, as he has been grieving the loss of his mom and getting to know me simultaneously.

I am not one to go on and on, as many of you know, but it has been a joy to get to know and love Simon. He was ready to be engaged much sooner than me, but he waited for me to ask all the questions and feel settled and ready for this big life change. (44 years of singleness is no joke, I've realized.) It's given us time to talk politics and religion, go on fun adventures, talk about the future and what work and ministry would look like together and settle in to a deep peace and excitement for the future. I'm grateful.

We've had some fun mini-trips to the Wisconsin Dells and Madison, CO, and Duluth. We've run together and gone to the beach together, thrift-store shopped and had many meals and coffee, one of my favorite things. We've gotten to know each other's' people and found that we just want to be with and around each other.

Simon and I prepared to run the Twin Cities 10-mile on October 5. We had just looked at wedding rings for me and a friend casually commented, "Maybe he'll propose at the end of the race". I doubted that, as the ring had just been ordered, but sure enough, Simon bought a different band to propose with and totally surprised me after the race. It was fun to hear those who caught on to what was going on respond with gasps and clapping afterward. We are looking forward to life as Mr. and Mrs. Sikulu, and we're beyond happy that you are interested in us, our story, and celebrating our union. Thank you.