Tell us a little about your love story:

We met just a few months before COVID broke out. We joke that we may never have made it if it weren’t for COVID. Catherine is a social butterfly and always involved in too many things. Mike was completely dedicated to his military career. If the world hadn’t shut down, who knows? But it did. And so we spent a lot of time with each other with very few distractions. We took online dance lessons, hiked every trail in the area repeatedly, watched a lot of movies, and got engaged. We had seven very small outdoor engagement parties. Our wedding was also outdoors and epic because by September 2020 everybody was craving a little fun. A couple months later we found out Catherine was pregnant and a couple months after that we found out we were going to be stationed in San Diego! So at seven and a half months pregnant we set out on an 18-day road trip across the country visiting lots of family and friends. Our daughter was born and we both experienced for the first time how much harder it is to build community in a new place when you have a tiny baby.

What inspired you to be part of First Fruits?

Last year, just before our daughter turned three, Mike retired from the military and we drove back across the country to settle into Catherine’s hometown… again faced with trying to build community, but now with a toddler. We both knew people, but they were spread out all over the metropolitan area, and many were in different phases of life than we were.

Mike was feeling a real loss of mission since he was no longer active-duty military. Soon we encountered First Fruits and immediately saw how valuable it would be for people in situations similar to ours. Both loving a good mission, we jumped in to help promote it in our area.

What’s something you’ve learned—or are learning—about love, marriage, or family life?

We have learned that working together on a mission (outside of raising a child) that requires each of our strengths and plenty of teamwork is good for our marriage and our love.