Dear Family and Friends,

I am sure you are distracted by the pictures but come with me as I tell you a story.

It was the year 2016 while I was working as a Care & Support HIV/AIDS officer in Family Health Care Foundation – FAHCI NGO Lafia, North Central Nigeria. Among my myriad of roles, I usually train corps members as Peer Educator Trainers (PET). Besides my role of working with People Living with HIV (PLHIV), training corps members was the second most exciting thing about my job.

I planned my training to hold on 29th, 30th June and 1st July 2016. Day 1 commenced, and it was exciting as ever but Day 2 & 3 were to be known in history as the “training days that changed my life forever”. These days had a different kind of energy because there was this particular beautiful and very tall Corp member who was not just attentively taking notes but was asking as well as answering very intelligent questions. She made those days very engaging for me. In fact, there were questions she asked that I did not know the answers to. I had to use English to confuse her small. Lol…but damn!! She was freaking smart.

Truth is, I tripped so my dressing and use of English vocabulary was at its best on Day 2 and 3. Lol. How man go do na? You have to impress the lady.

Now let’s speed up the story a bit so that I do not bore you. While I was tripping, she also caught the bug too. 😂. At the end of the training, I sent my training slides to the Corp members and guess the 1st person to reply my email? Yes, it was who you are thinking, this very corps member!! This was her reply:

“Thank you so much sir. It was a prodigious presentation and I am very thankful. I admire and appreciate your tenacity and dedication and I pray all your dreams come true. God bless you”.

Omo! All this English for inside email na. My head scatter finish.

Anyways, we stepped up from emails to Facebook and eventually WhatsApp. I guess you know what happens when it ends on WhatsApp? Lol. We began to grow close. Then we went on our first date and “like” grew to “love” but we were scared of the workability of our future because exactly 2 months after we met, I got awarded the Commonwealth Scholarship and travelled to the UK for my Master’s degree. Thankfully, communications continued on top gear and the love grew stronger. The distance and many other challenges (story for another day) made us stronger and immediately I finished my studies and was preparing to return home, she was awarded the Commonwealth Scholarship too to undertake her masters in the UK.

Now this is where it gets interesting:
1. She was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship (Same as me)
2. To study M.Sc. Public Health- Health Promotion (Same Course as me and in same school).
3. She made a MASSIVE distinction (same as me).
4. We had same dissertation supervisor.
See how God works in mysterious ways right?

It became clear that our paths were tailored towards forever hood.
What strikes me is how she challenges me to be a better person. Like she will always tell me ” Do not be too comfortable where you are that you are distracted from climbing higher”.
My life took a positive spin of growth and progress because I met her. In fact, she has become my mentor and the one who fights with me for all the right reasons until she is sure I succeed.

Now ask me, who would not marry such a woman?

In view of this and in exactly a week from now, we will be taking our “forever vows”.
All that we thought would divide us made us stronger. Indeed, what God has ordained, nothing fit scatter am.
Join us on 22nd April 2019.

Ladies and Gentlemen it is #Aa2Zi2019 (pronounced A to Z; coined from Aaron and Ezinne)
I apologize for my very short-long boring story. 😂.

See you in Anambra, I will finish the story there. Lol