You're Invited

This story began in May of 2021in Grand Forks, North Dakota when Andrew and Katrina met each other through mutual friends at the local Spring Fling Pub Crawl. Katrina was out celebrating a recent birthday and Andrew was out celebrating plans for an upcoming deployment to Washinton D.C. They hit it off and connected that evening and, after some friends stole their phones and sent messages so both Andrew and Katrina thought the other was the one that messaged first, they decided they wanted to keep talking and get to know each other, even with Andrew leaving for over a year. Even after Andrew started his trip, they continued to talk everyday and liked hearing from the other so much that it was decided that Katrina should even come out to Washington D.C to visit.

During those visits, Andrew and Katrina explored so much of the city and tried so many fun things that they bonded over. Andrew took Katrina to one of his favorite things in the world, her first Renaissance Faire, and talked her into buying her first Ren Faire dress, which not so coincidently, matched one of Andrew’s. From that moment on, Katrina was hooked on Renaissance Faires too. Andrew and Katrina discovered more about each other and their shared interests and hobbies. They loved discovering that they both were massive nerds. Andrew introduced Katrina to his love of anime and computer games, and Katrina introduced Andrew to her love of books and anything related to Halloween and the macabre. They found they didn’t just like talking together, they liked being together as well. During the course of Andrew’s deployment, they fell in love and looked forward to when he would get to come home and they could explore more of their relationship.

After Andrew came home, over a year after he and Katrina and first met, they found that things were still just as great being together as they had hoped. Katrina started to spend more and more time with Andrew in Grand Forks until he told he’d like her to come stay with him. That’s what she decided to do and the two of them decided to make a home together with their house in Grand Forks and their little zoo of pets. From this point on, they were basically inseparable, doing everything together, whether it was watching their favorite shows, playing video games, hanging out with friends, or traveling, where one was, the other was normally close behind.

Things stayed in this easy pattern until October of 2023, when Andrew had his next big trip to leave for, a 9 month deployment to Syria. This trip would be different than past ones because there would be no visits, few phone calls, and quite a bit of worry. But through the whole deployment, Andrew and Katrina again found ways to talk with each other in some way almost every day and made sure they both knew they had the other’s love and support.

After almost a year of being apart, Andrew finally got to come home again. They were so happy to be home with each other again and almost immediately that things felt just right being back together again, almost like they’d never been apart. Andrew surprised Katrina with planning the most amazing vacation as a celebration of him coming home, and it was on this trip that he asked her to marry him and she said yes. There was no question that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him and for them to promise to love and support each other for the rest of their lives. They are looking forward to seeing what all comes their way in the coming years, but are excited to face things together.