Erik and I first met in early 2000 during my junior year of college. I had been gone in the fall on a study abroad program and met Erik that winter. He and several others were doing the internship with the campus ministry program I was part of. I recall knowing who he was, but not really interacting with him or getting to know him.

The following year he became the administrator for the college ministry, and I volunteered in his office. I would make copies or fold bulletins for the Friday night services, and we would visit about the ministry and school. He would pick me up from campus and then drive me back afterward. I remember thinking he was interesting but that he ran the office completely differently from the way I would run it!

I graduated from college and moved away. However, after about six months my job ended and I moved back to Bellingham. I decided to get more involved in the community rather than my old student ministry, and joined a church bible study that Erik was co-leading. Then his co-leader stepped down and he asked me if I would lead it together with him. We led that bible study together for a couple of months in spring 2002. It was also during that spring that Erik asked me out :) At that point I did not see him that way and so I turned him down! Thankfully he was not offended, so we continued to spend time together that spring as friends.

He financially supported me in the campus ministry internship I did that fall (the same one he had come to Bellingham for) and in my ministry work in Linz, Austria on the campus there. During those years in between, Erik was always great about keeping in touch - he would send me an email or give me a call every few months.

In the spring of 2005, he was preparing to do a legal internship in Holland at the International Criminal Tribunal. I was still working in Austria, and he contacted me and suggested we try to meet since we would both be in Europe.

It was that summer as we were planning our trip to Berlin that I had an "aha" moment and suddenly became interested in Erik as more than a friend and a travel companion. His words on the phone that day were... "I just want someone to share the adventure with" and I suddenly began to imagine that he might have been talking about me.

The photo is of us at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin. It was that conversation and the great weekend we had there in September that were the beginnings our relationship :)