In the early summer of 2001, I had been attending church at the Langley ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for 2 years. During those 2 years, Russ had been studying at Brigham Young University in Utah, returning home to Northern Virginia occasionally on school breaks. When he was in Virginia, he would often attend the Langley ward to scope out the new girls in town, and he had been aware of me (and watching from a distance) for quite some time (though he has only admitted this once, under duress). He got up the courage and introduced himself in the foyer at church in late May 2001. I, at the time, was thoroughly disgusted with dating and wanted nothing to do with anyone of the male gender. I think I gave the poor boy a withering look and responded barely cordially enough to be considered polite. By all logical accounts, that probably should have been the end of “us” before we even began, but, you see, Russ is a particularly persistent type at times.

In June, one of the speakers at a church conference delivered a tremendously motivating lecture, targeted at the gentlement, on dating and marriage. (I think every single man in the room, asked at least one girl on a date immediately after the meeting.) As chance would have it, Russ and I happened to be in the same foyer after the meeting… Russ approached me, made some small talk and asked if I’d like to go out sometime (to which I responded hardly more politely than before, being only slightly less disgusted with dating than I was the first time.) I had responded in the affirmative, albeit unenthusiastically, so Russ politely asked for my number (and promptly threw it away after we parted!) Again, by all accounts, that really should have been the end of things, but this time, I think Heavenly Father got very determined and changed things around for us…

By the beginning of July, I was ready to try my luck with the dating game, again. One Sunday, Russ came into relief society to make an announcement. He was such a charmer and had the whole room enamoured with his wit in a matter of seconds! He really caught my eye as I got to know and see him in a different way than I had before, even if just for a minute. He suddenly intrigued me. …and he had asked me out before. Now I was ready to consider such an invitation… but how was he to know that I had changed my mind? I decided to give him a little help… I arranged and "accidental" rendezvous after the meetings and uttered a phrase that will forever live in infamy, “Hey, weren’t we supposed to go out sometime?” Thus, however innocently, I provided the fuel for Russ’s claim that I asked him out. He, however, took the hint… and ran with it. By the next weekend we had gone on the first of many wonderful dates, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Russ swept me off my feet quite unexpectedly, being easily the most romantic, fun and thoughtful man I have ever dated. It has been an interesting two years since we began dating – full of joys, sorrows, and unexpected turns. We have learned volumes about ourselves and each other. Now, as we look forward to beginning our lives together, we are more certain than ever of the strength and quality of our relationship. The Lord has truly answered our prayers and blessed us with the desires of our hearts in each other.