I think it’s safe to say that Peter and I did not plan to meet our future wife/husband on a dating app, but we did. Shoutout to Hinge for that.

I’ll start (Hi, it’s Danielle). Long story short, I refused to meet someone on a dating app. I wanted the cute, movie-like love story where we’d meet in a coffee shop, and the rest would be history. God had other plans. For years, my sister (Ashley) BUGGED me to get on a dating app because she believed that I would find someone. After who knows how long of arguments, I got one . . . Well, I downloaded a few, but they were all sketchy, so the last dating app I downloaded before calling it quits was Hinge. I lived in West Virginia at the time, but I knew I would be moving to Missouri to live closer to my sister and brother-in-law. I just had to graduate grad school first. Anyway, my and Hinge had a love/hate relationship. I can’t tell you how many times I deleted the app because I still refused to meet my future husband online. A month before some random Illinois guy messaged me, I decided that I was happy being single and wanted to stay that way. However, I guess I still had the smallest sliver of hope that MAYBE I would find someone. I set up my Hinge profile like an obstacle course. Not many people go through the entire profile before messaging a person they’re interested in. So, I told myself, if someone comments on the last prompt of my profile, I’ll message them back. (The last prompt was something like: I want someone who loves God as much as me or more than me.) Well, on July 19, 2022 (yes, Peter. I remember the date) a little over a month after I decided to just stay single and before deleting Hinge once again, I got a notification that someone had commented on my profile. I open the app again, thinking that some guy just liked the first picture or prompt I posted and commented on that. Instead, some Illinois guy commented on the very last prompt of my profile and said, “Love this!!” Two words. That’s all. But, I made a promise to myself that I would talk to whoever went through my entire profile and commented on the last prompt. It took me two days to respond because I knew that if we clicked, I would have to try and commit to someone, but not only that, eventually tell them that I don’t live in the Midwest even though my location is set there. July 21, 2022, I decided that I would message back because maybe this is what was in God’s plan. From that day, we talked every day. We found out how much we had in common, had the same sense of humor, had similar hobbies, but more importantly, we were both Christians. After a couple weeks of talking, we both said that we’re setting the bar high for us. I finally told Peter that I wasn’t in Missouri yet but was 100% moving once I graduated, and he said, “You’re worth the wait.” We messaged for a few weeks but had yet to hear each other’s voice and see each other, so we had a Facetime date and talked for hours. It was so natural. After that call, we said that we set the bar sky high and that now we need to actually meet in person. Luckily, I had planned a trip to see my sister early September, and that’s when we decided to finally meet. September 8th, we met in Cape Girardeau in the Target parking lot. September 9th, I went to Marion and had the best lazy day ever just watching movies. September 10th, he asked me to come back because he wanted to take me somewhere, so I went back to Marion, and he took me to Bald Knob Cross. When we got back to his house, I started tearing up because I didn’t know the next time I’d see him. But when I left his house, I called one of my best friends who knew I wanted to be single and said, “I’M MARRYING HIM!” During this phone call, Peter texted me and said, “I just spilt my guts to my sister. I’m marrying you.” Now, we set the bar so high out of this world. Nine months later, I packed up my car and moved to the Midwest, just like how I had been planning it; however, God had other plans when talking about the Midwest. I knew I would move to the Midwest to be closer to my sister and brother-in-law, which I did, but I didn’t know that it was Illinois I was going to be moving to instead of Missouri. A little over a year after moving to Marion, he proposed! After setting the bar up high, sky high, and out of this world, we finally reached it, and we couldn’t be happier.

Now, it’s Peter’s side of the story . . . I almost deleted the app, saw this pretty girl’s profile, saw her prompt about loving God as much as her or more than her, and messaged her. It took her long enough to respond back to me, but I’m glad she did. We talked, we met, we fell in love, and here we are. We set the bar high from the very beginning, and we reached it. All that lovey stuff she said in her part, ditto.