meet the couple
who are
GEN &
JD?
Individually we are both firecrackers which makes for a dynamic and passionate relationship. We both enjoy the thrill of adventuring and discovered our love for nature and the outdoors together. We actively seek activities we’ve never experienced and often find ourselves making spontaneous decisions, like buying front row seats to a concert two hours away but only ONE hour before it begins, or going on various day trips to places where we wander around until we get lost and disregard the time.
Our version of fun is a blend of thrill-seeking and casual everyday fun, but unfortunately, breaking at least one expensive item every time we leave the house comes with the territory. We fully embrace being “that annoying couple” when it comes to seasonal activities. But more than anything, we relish in being “kids at heart”. Our relationship is full of playfulness, laughter and fun. We both love each other’s weird quirks and naturally bring out the silliness in each other. You’ll often find Jd geeking out about anything ranging from stock portfolios to Star Wars and Gen hyping him up or vice versa, but with twinkle lights, home décor, and plants for Gen.
Together, we are mission-minded and we gain our fulfillment by celebrating others and being in community with the people we love. While we each have different giftings and skill-sets, we both share in our passion to serve and to love others, using the gifts we’ve been given by God.
Apart from our playfulness, we encourage each other daily and support each other, always. We are big time dreamers who love to visualize the future together and above all things, we fight for the things we believe in. We consistently pull out the goodness and strength in each other and are committed to loving one another on our worst days. We are so beyond excited to officially tie the knot and begin our marriage journey together with Christ at the center.
who are
GEN & JD?
our
mission
When we first met, we were both unaligned with God’s best for us and individually we were straying away from his calling on our lives. We believe that God pairing us together was intentional and purposeful for that reason. Through God’s manifestation in our relationship, we have helped each other choose sanctification and holiness over the values and themes that the world prescribes to. We believe God gifted us to each other so that we can model what a Christ-like lifestyle looks like for other couples and for anyone who we might influence. We hope to ignite change in our culture by being set apart Christians who lead by example.
our
mission
Our favorite memory together begins with what we intended on being a romantic moment but quickly escalated into almost costing a swan boat its life.
One Autumn night, after coming off of a less than thrilling pumpkin spooktacular, we were looking for ways to spice up the night and keep it going. From a distance, we saw glowing lights floating around in a pond. Curiosity led us to a nighttime glow-in-the-dark swan boat party that we just could not turn down. Ten bucks a person and an elderly woman who only spoke Russian handed us life jackets.
Now, the swan only moved as quickly as we peddled and came partially equipped with only one lever that was supposed to somehow control this swan-figured boat. A larger than life swan-shaped head towered over us as we drifted into the unknowns of the pond. Our ten dollars gave us one lap around, as we navigated through and around illuminated obstacles. We eagerly chose the swan boat with purple neon lights and off we went.
Early on, it was very apparent that we were struggling to steer this mechanical contraption — a foreshadowing that we were headed towards impending doom.
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The first obstacle was a lit-up metal arch that we banged into a few times, but have no fear, we managed to escape obstacle one with minimal damage. We wish we could say the same about the second obstacle but unfortunately for the swan boat, we cannot.
Obstacle two was a red brick bridge that we had to peddle under to reach the other side of the pond. Two ropes under the bridge indicated that we must stay within the INSIDE of the ropes. We misunderstood this concept entirely and steered our swan towards the OUTSIDE of the ropes. This became catastrophic when our swan suddenly came to a screeching halt when its head got caught and started to slowly drag under the lower part of the bridge. We both cringed at the painful sound of metal scraping against brick, and turned to each other with fear in our eyes. In hindsight, the Russian lady most definitely measured these suckers and knew the swan boats would ONLY fit within the inside of the ropes. *Picture a truck on a highway that is meant to drive underneath an underpass, but gets destroyed because it does not meet the height requirement*
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Simultaneously freaking out while laughing, we weighed out the minimal options we had. If we peddled forward or backward too quickly, there was no doubt the swan’s neck would break off. While contemplating our next move, a nearby swan boat with two older women approached us and asked if they could help relieve us from this chaotic scene we created for ourselves. We accepted their offer so JD reached out and grabbed one of their hands to pull us out while Gen was pushing off the bridge with one foot out of the swan boat as leverage against the wall. To any of the onlookers - you’re welcome for providing your entertainment of the night.
Pieces of the swan’s head began to chip off and fall on us along with other debris from the bridge as we were pulled out into safety by these two older women. For the remainder of our chaotic swan boat ride, we peddled back to the dock and remained in laughter and prayer that the swan’s head would not fall off and by the grace of God, it did not.
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This was by far the funniest moment of all time. To this day, this remains our favorite moment because we belly laughed through the entire experience — neither of us had ever laughed that hard in our lives. This was one of the many ridiculous situations we have found ourselves in over the course of our relationship. But we remain unapologetic in our goofiness and our clumsiness because it’s part of who we are. In our marriage we will choose to continue to see the humor in unforeseen circumstances and approach life with laughter.
Every now and then when we see a swan boat we still twitch with ptsd.
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