Where to begin? Well, at the beginning, of course! Lauren and Edwin met at Douglas Byrd High School in Fayetteville, North Carolina when Lauren was a 13 year old freshman and Edwin was a 14 year old sophomore. They had Coach Edge's Health and Physical Education Class and JROTC together. Edwin was a dedicated percussionist in the marching band while Lauren focused on speech and debate. Their paths intersected again with theater when they both starred in the high school production of the musical, "Grease". Lauren worked to complete the coursework for both sophomore and junior year on an accelerated schedule, so both entered into senior year in 1999. Lacking a single math class necessary for graduation, they earned the credit and walked across the graduation stage in the summer commencement at Fayetteville State University with only 17 total Eagles out of a class of over 300 (Edwin still has that program, too!). Having been friends but never romantically linked, they walked out of that auditorium and into their individual lives. Edwin enlisted in the United States Army and Lauren went on to university, both moving away from North Carolina, marrying-and subsequently divorcing- on opposite sides of the globe. Edwin returned to North Carolina many years later and enrolled at Lauren's alma mater, but she was in Colorado. Lauren did not attend the ten year class reunion that Edwin did and then the fifteen year reunion was canceled. Somehow through Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and loads of mutual friends, the two never reconnected. Seventeen years of silence, and then the silence was shattered by none other than a right swipe and a match. 2017 dating at its finest, and the rest is history!

We have had a lot of fun discovering that while we have both been in Fayetteville for the past five years, our missed connections have been the stuff of movies. Not only have we been in the same city, but we have even been in the same room without realizing it! God's perfect timing allowed us to meet again at the moment when each was ready for the other. Our love feels at once exhilaratingly new and comfortingly familiar and our gratefulness is beyond words.