On Saturday, I will change my last name. It’s surreal. And wonderful.

It’s also been hard. Getting engaged and married in the time of COVID-19 is an odd, overwhelming, anxiety-inducing, and grievous experience.

But it’s also – still – a beautiful and worthy endeavor. And recently, my fiancé said something that completely affirmed for me that not only is he the one meant to be my husband, but that God’s timing is also perfect.

A few weeks ago, Steve and I were getting peppered with a million wonderful questions by Steve’s friend who wanted to hear all about our story and how we were managing life in light of the craziness of wedding planning and well, what everyone is experiencing with this pandemic. She asked Steve what was the one thing that our engagement and this time leading up to our wedding has he learned or what has changed for him.

His response defied what most people would say about marriage and engagement. He talked about how he felt like a “weight was off his shoulders” and how there was this “new freedom” in knowing he had my support and partnership.

Some describe marriage as the ‘ball and chain’, getting ‘locked down’, and a loss of freedom. But for us, it’s about having a partner to help carry the burden, to be reminded to let go of the stresses of the day, to give each other strength and encouragement, and when the stress of work or just the world seems to be overwhelming to sneakily put on a song that makes your partner smile or send a ridiculous gif of a llama dressed as a lobster, to take on a task that lightens their load or to hold each other and pray for peace.

If we weren’t in public, I would have reached over right then and there and kissed him as he described how being engaged was a source of empowerment. (Don’t worry, there was lots of that later…) But, his answer affirmed for me that getting married is a wonderful thing – and this pandemic couldn’t take that away from us. It just made things look a little different. It put a different set of challenges before us. But beautiful things happen in the midst of challenging times every day, in every season throughout history.

This week has been especially hard in many ways. There’s been a lot of loss for some old friends and for new friends just in the last few weeks. It’s reminded us how fragile life is and how important it is to bring the ones you love closer. And I mean emotionally – still take precaution and be safe and be reasonable, but being physically distant or wearing a mask in these times does not mean you have to pull away and isolate emotionally. I would argue now is the time to draw in closer, even if it’s in creative and new ways.

“Our song” is Jason Aldean’s “You Make It Easy” – which we will dance to in my backyard as husband and wife this Saturday. Marriage will not always be easy. Life isn’t easy. The last few months have proven that. But the commitment to facing life’s challenges as a team, even in the pandemic, well that’s a beautiful and wonderful and worthy thing. And that choice, well Steve has made that easy for me.