In 2020, when we were in Covid lockdown, my Mom stopped me in the kitchen. She said, “What’s Sarah Ludvik up to these days?” I said I had no idea. Then she smiled and said, “You should ask her on a date.”

Guess my Mom didn’t think the girl I was dating at the time was going to be my future wife. And she was right.

I went to high school with Sarah Ludvik and always thought she was cute. We were friends at youth group and I kept up with her on social media. We went to different colleges, and then she was living in South Carolina after school. We tried to connect when we were home, but always missed each other.


Then she texted me. It was April the tenth. (My Mom’s birthday, I must add). “Coffee tomorrow morning?”


Three Ships. 10am. She walked in dressed in blue and way more beautiful than I remembered.


The more we talked the more I thought, “I got to keep talking to this girl.”


I wrote in my journal that night, Sarah is exactly the girl I want to marry.


But after coffee she went back to South Carolina. Eight hours of highway between us. I called her the next day. We talked for an hour. I called her again, and again. Her laugh made me feel like I was floating. She told me about her life, her faith. I was most struck by her heart for Jesus. We got into a rhythm of calling every few days and texting in between.


More than anything, I was drawn to the way she wanted to build the Kingdom. I wanted to build the Kingdom like that too. And I wanted to do it with her.


One day, in the middle of an hours-long conversation, she told me how she hated when boys would make friends with her just to ask her out later. She said she just wanted friends. Five minutes later I asked her out.


I mailed her flowers. She told me she went into fight or flight mode when she got them.


We went on our first date and I was convinced.


She was not. I was undeterred.


I held her hand at the end of the night. She tried to drop hints that we wouldn’t be going out again.


But then I kept calling and she kept answering. She would even call me sometimes. I went away to the summer camp I worked for and she was still in South Carolina. I tried asking her on another date and she said, “let’s just do coffee or something casual.” “No,” I said.


We met up for dinner in Nags Head. Then a few days later she came down again to Hatteras. She told me we needed to go a week without speaking to each other. Then after that she was in.


Sometime in the middle of August I kissed her and a few days later she told me she loved me.


It wasn’t but a month later we starting talking about marriage. Sarah Ludvik was slow at first and then was all in. Once she knew, she knew.


I got down on one knee in January and surprised her thoroughly. Now we really do get to spend the rest of our lives building the Kingdom together

Sam and I went to middle school together. His mom was my English teacher and his dad volunteered at youth group. I knew Sam enough to be “friends” but I didn’t know his story. I saw his trips and memoirs on social media. Sam’s heart for the Lord was evident. He oriented his whole life chasing adventure and seeking the Lord while doing it- I wanted to know his story.

We played phone tag for three years trying to get coffee- he was always in Germany, France, or Iceland, nothing out of the ordinary for him.

Sam texted me in February, he was driving through Clemson. I asked him what the Lord was teaching him- I’m not one for small talk. I was home that April and tried once again, he was finally in Virginia.

We got coffee and talked for two hours. Sam had a joy unlike anyone else. We talked about the Lord and what we were learning. I told my mom he was the kind of guy I wanted to be with.

He texted me two days later that he had been thinking about our time together and wanted to keep talking- I had butterflies. I liked talking to him- but you think I was going to tell him that? Heck no. Back to South Carolina I went.

He sent me a podcast and we talked for two hours. I would text him questions and he made me wait for a call to hear his thoughts. Our conversations weren’t like others I had before. He was passionate about building the church and loving people while doing it. Sam kept asking when I would be home- I knew where this was going. I told him I wasn’t sure I might stay in SC, move home, who knew. Then he mailed me sunflowers and I froze in the kitchen. He asked me on a date and I said yes, back to Virginia two months later.

End of May we watched the sunrise and got coffee. In the afternoon he picked me up for pickleball and dinner. Sam saw right through any wall or distance I put between us. He wouldn’t settle for half-hearted answers or my safe-guarding. He was pursuing me and wanted to know me deeply. I ended the night with a happy- this was fun, thanks!

Sam kept calling. He asked when we were going on another date and I was testing him. I told him I wanted to marry a pastor and he told me he didn't want to be a pastor- still didn't scare him away. End of July I drove to Hatteras for our second date. Then again a few days later- I liked him okay. After that weekend I told him we couldn’t talk for a week. I needed to figure out if I was all in.

To no surprise I missed him and wrote him letters every day. I saw him that Friday and had butterflies. I met more of his people, he drove me in his motorcycle, and I held his hand. One small step for Sam, one giant leap for mankind. He moved home at the end of the summer and asked me to be his girlfriend. Annndddddd I told him I loved him two days later.

Later we were surfing and I asked him “Do you think the Lord will tell you when you should propose to me or do you think you’ll just know?” I was a slow warm but BLAZING after.

Late January we watched the sunrise, talked for hours at coffee (familiar right). He brought sunflowers to my door, we went to the beach and he got down on one knee. My body shook- the man said March and I was (not so patiently) waiting for March!!

I sobbed and said yes. Sam is the mountain I will never summit. He is the iron that sharpens my soul, always loving and encouraging me towards the cross.