David and Olivia first met at Concordia University-Wisconsin (CUW) in a theology class, 'Old Testament.' Was it love at first sight? Not at all. With the exception of vigorous and heated online discussion posts required for the class, we never conversed the entire semester. Olivia thought David was kind of a nerd but cool because of all of the questions he asked during class, and David thought Olivia was a quiet, 'eye catching,' cute lady with mystique, who he happened to frequently debate with in the online posts unaware. He did not realize she was the person he was debating with, but she did.

Gradually as we attended CUW, we then met again, awkwardly through a mutual friend in the campus' dining hall and slowly took the chance to get to know each other during lunch and dinner. Secretly, we both were delighted when the other was in the dining hall, and eventually became acquainted with each other's friends. Olivia was, of course, oblivious to David's flirtatious interest but was quietly very interested. Finally after some days spent ice-skating and going on walks touring the campus during the dead of winter David asked Olivia to be his girlfriend in ankle deep snow on the bluffs.

And the rest is history.

Our engagement story happened at Holy Hill Basilica. David and Olivia had planned a picnic there with Anika and Kurtis Polodna on Saturday August 2nd. Unbeknownst to Olivia, David and Anika (Olivia's best friend) made additional plans in secret for Olivia. The day started with a lovely picnic at the base of the hill, then took to the scenic route reflecting on the Basilica's beauty featuring many chances to take pictures and casually talk, and eventually came to a crescendo atop one of the Basilica's towers where David dropped to one knee and asked Olivia to marry him. Overjoyed she of course said "Yes," but first there were a lot of tears and nodding and hugging.