We’re Engaged!

I am very happy to announce that I and my girlfriend, Heather Eisler, are engaged. We were visiting my family in Colorado last weekend for my brother’s high school graduation, and on Sunday morning during the announcements at my home parish of St. Mary’s, I proposed and she accepted.

Heather and I both live in the graduate student apartments here at Notre Dame and we met last August at a beginning-of-the-year meet-and-greet at the community center. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, she was immediately taken with me and started to “lure me in,” as she puts it. After joining a Bible-study group with her and getting to know her, I ended up asking her out on a few dates without me realizing that they were, in fact, dates; I just assumed we were friends—but she had other ideas. Finally, during an election-watch party in the community center in November, she and her friends conspired first to get us sitting next to each other on the couch and then to pack the couch with more and more people until I had no choice but to put my arm around back to make more room. As her head settled onto my shoulder, it finally dawned on me.

We have grown far closer to each other and in a far shorter amount of time than either of us would have thought possible. Despite the fact that this has been a particularly stressful semester—not only is grad school hard, but she has spent the semester finishing her dissertation in biology—we have found that spending time with each other is both the best remedy against the stress and the part of the day we look forward to most. May has, in fact, been a particularly exciting month for us, as the Tuesday before last, Heather successfully defended her doctoral dissertation—as best as I understand, it is on the genetics/genomics of two related species of fruit flies; but for a real explanation, you’d have to ask her—and the correct form of address is now “Dr. Eisler”. Since I still have several more years to go in my program at Notre Dame, she has applied to do a post-doc in another one of the labs here—we should hear next month on whether the funding for the lab has come through.

Heather is one of the most deeply caring and thoughtful individuals I have ever known, and I find it impossible to think what my life would be like without her. God has graciously given us to each other, and I thank Him every day for letting us glimpse in our bond of love His own love for us. We are truly blessed to have found true love and we both look forward to spending our lives together.