How We Met
Fabian and I met in Jos, Nigeria February of 2018. We both came to do international mission work with an organization called SIM. We lived in the same apartment complex and did life together in a variety of ways for six incredible months.
To start, Fabi and I served alongside eachother at a local outreach catering to Muslim street boys. We fed them, led some variation of a game center with them, and shared the Gospel message with them on a weekly basis. Fabi and I also taught right next door to each other in Nigeria-he taught math I taught English. We taught junior high and highschool displaced orphans from the North of Nigeria. In Nigeria, the schoolroom walls don’t reach the ceiling so Fabi and I would often bounce jokes back and forth to eachother while teaching. This comical touch helped me through some of the hardest days in Nigeria.
Aside from ministry, Fabi and I become acquainted through personal avenues. We had weekly frisbee mornings with local missionaries and Nigerians, played hours of card games every Sunday, had meals together and watched movies or tv shows on our compound throughout the week and also, participated in weekly prayer nights too. I began to call Fabi my ‘daily source of entertainment’ because he had a way of making me laugh that was unique and genuine and brought immense joy to my spirit.
I left Nigeria in June, a few weeks before Fabi, heartbroken to leave such a beautiful place yet filled up by a new friendship with Fabi. Little did I know that six weeks later we would pray about and begin seriously dating eachother. No one knew the uphill battles we would have to climb with a nine-hour time distance, language, and cultural barriers, and visa issues as Fabi is German living in Germany and I am an American citizen.
Below is a picture of Fabi (far left) our sweet friend Claire, our driver Jimmy, and myself (far right)
How They Asked
A year and a half later Fabi was in town visiting me (at this point he had obtained Canadian citizenship and was living there when he was not in town with me) when, on a rainy Saturday in October, asked if he could go meet some guys from our life group and hang out with them. Not phased, yet slightly skeptical I said ‘sure.’ Shortly after, my life group girls came to pick me up, blindfolded me, and took me to Picnic Point beach in Edmonds, Wa where Fabi led me down to the water and took off my blindfold.
To my surprise, there was a beautiful giant heart outlined with little tea lights and rose petals in the sand. It was so beautiful, I was genuinely surprised! Then, Fabi walked me to the top of the heart, shared some incredibly sweet, heartfelt words with me, and got down on one knee and proposed. He recalls that I said yes before he even popped the question. It was the most beautiful day, I lived on cloud 9 for weeks!!
!! :)