To David, Paul wrote, "Look, I've got a girl working for me now who you might be interested in. . . . She is fun and flexible. I think you guys would go well together. You are both smart, adventurous, spiritual seekers. . . . Any chance you can come over to Ethiopia for a visit? :-)"

David decided not to fly all the way from Baltimore just for a blind date. Besides, he doesn't even like Ethiopian food. So David let the matter drop, thinking he had better things to do than write to some girl who was thousands of miles away in Africa. But Paul was persistent. Shaunda finished her year in Ethiopia and returned to the US to attend law school in North Carolina. Two years after his first attempt failed, Paul tried more aggressive marketing:

"I may have told you a bit about the dude in question before--David. He is soon to finish his PhD in Biology from Johns Hopkins. He is smart, down to earth, adventurous, open minded, but still SDA."

Shaunda thought the "dude" sounded quite extraordinary! Although she had known Paul to exaggerate before, she took a risk and let Paul give her email address to David. A few days later, David emailed her with the subject line, "I'm Paul's friend." That email chain continued for forty emails over the next two and a half months.

We had never exchanged photographs, so we decided it would be classy and fun to meet the old-fashioned, pre-cell phone way. David wore a red bow tie, and Shaunda wore a purple dress. David scanned the restaurant lobby for the woman in the purple dress, nervously wondering to himself, "How do I greet her? Do I give her a hug, shake her hand, or what?" When the beautiful woman in the purple dress did walk in, David was too nervous to do either and awkwardly said, "I'm David, you must be Shaunda."

That first date was an awkward transition from thoughtful emails to the free-flow banter of conversation. But we both had a hunch that with time, the verve, humor, and wit that we had detected over email would come out in person, too. Shaunda suggested we spend the afternoon exploring the botanical gardens on the Duke campus. As we walked the paths and smelled the flowers, our conversation ranged from mutual surprise that we both liked to climb magnolia trees, to a long discussion of our experiences in graduate and law school. David asked if he could have dinner with Shaunda on his way back to Baltimore the following Sunday, and Shaunda agreed.

David and Shaunda had a wonderful time on the drive back from Thanksgiving break. Shaunda introduced David to Boiled P-Nuts from a roadside stand, and David stopped the car often to enjoy the beautiful Appalachian scenery.

On December 28 we visited Arches National Park in Utah. There, under the most remarkable view of the Milky Way Shaunda had ever seen, David asked her if she wanted to "make this official and start going steady." Shaunda's first instinct was to laugh at his use of the archaic phrase "going steady." But she maintained her composure and said yes.

And then David departed for 100 days in Africa. Unlike David two years earlier, Shaunda decided it was worth her while to write to someone in Africa. Unfortunately, David's Internet connection was too slow for voice chatting, so we typed back and forth in Google chat, a line at a time. So for this part of our relationship, we have a written record of all our conversations, including our first significant disagreement. In order to continue getting to know each other while we were apart, we completed the book 101 Questions to Ask Before You Get Engaged. David compiled our answers into a 66-page Word Document.

One day while David was crammed into an African taxi, he heard a song on the radio that summed up their relationship. He made it into a little music video for Shaunda:

Summer fun
Things were getting pretty serious, and Google Chat just couldn't convey the growing depth of our relationship. By this time, Shaunda had lined up a summer internship with the Department of Justice in Atlanta, so David got himself an internship in Atlanta with Accion USA to try microlending in the United States. Living in the same city for a summer would be the perfect opportunity to see if our relationship could withstand seeing each other every day.

But before the summer fun could begin, David needed to drive his car and possessions back across the US to Atlanta. So we flew out to Washington, spent time with David's parents, and then took a leisurely road trip through Idaho, Utah, and Colorado, camping, climbing, and rappelling along the way.

By this time, our relationship had weathered long distance, medical issues, and multiple cross-country road trips. Each of us knew it was time to take the plunge and commit to sharing the journey of the rest of our lives, but how to pop the question? Read our engagement story to find out.