I joined Hinge (the dating app) in the fall of 2024 on the recommendation of a dear friend back home in Nigeria. Ashley was the first ever match I made on Hinge and I remember going through her profile and simply saying ‘wow’. She sent me a message asking what anime I was watching because I did include it in my profile that I liked anime. Before I could answer however, her profile disappeared. Eventually I would find out that she had deactivated her account.
Fast forward to the last day of the year 2024, and I saw her profile again while swiping out of boredom as I hadn’t made any other meaningful connections. Could this be..? What are the chances? I remember thinking.
I swiped right and the match was almost immediate. This time, I stayed online and held her down with a conversation. There was no way I was going to let this beautiful woman disappear twice from my life. That began a conversation that blossomed into a relationship that has become one of the major anchors of my life. Even though she was traveling at the time we first connected, it didn’t seem long distance as we literally spent almost every moment on the phone. She will eventually threaten to cut her journey short and return to London on the 24th of March, and that will mark the first time we were meeting in person. I remember seeing her for the first time after a little joke she had pulled, and thinking that the phone cameras definitely didn’t do her justice. Over a year later and the story hasn’t changed as everyday I wake up and get to see her face, I am still shocked at how enamored I am with this woman’s beauty on the inside and outside. If she isn’t the one I get to spend the rest of my life with, then the gods of fate and luck are really playing a cruel joke on me, one we’d definitely have words over when I cross to the other side. And that is a brief synopsis on the origin of this love story (Disney couldn’t have done better, lol).
I moved to London in 2020, right at the tail end of the pandemic. I was 30 years old and relished the thought of meeting my very own Idris Elba (lol).
I came to the UK ready to date. Ready to find my forever.
But after swiping endlessly on dating apps, after countless dates, after four years of meeting men who were never quite what I was looking for.I was exhausted.
By fall 2024 I was on the apps still and feeling burnt out and over it all. So I decided to trade in the apps for some flight tickets. I packed my bags, and deleted my account. Spain, Shanghai, Thailand and Bali were all on my list and I spent the first month completely free from the stress of online dating. It honestly was the break I needed. But as the new year approached, I remember sitting in my Airbnb thinking... Ashley, you are not ready to give up and die alone just yet. So I downloaded the app one last time, and that one small decision would change the rest of my life.
I matched with Immanuel. His profile stopped me mid-scroll — dark-skinned, intelligent, attractive, God-fearing and humble. I thought... okay, maybe I've stumbled onto something here . And our very first conversation would prove that I had.We spoke for 3 hours that night, and haven't stopped talking since. As I continued traveling through Spain, Shanghai and Thailand, we stayed on the phone. Video calls across time zones, across three countries and with every conversation, our connection deepened. We grew more and more certain of what we had found in each other. But the more sure I became, the more frustrated I grew. I was enjoying my travels and the adventure I was in the middle of, but I felt like I had found the man that I wanted to experience all of life's adventures with. I was eager to be with him, so I cut my trip short and headed back to London to finally meet the one who had captured my heart.
Two weeks after that first swipe, I had an inkling that I *might* be dating my future husband. Four months later, when Immanuel introduced me to his father and told him we were planning to get married...the inkling was gone and I knew. And every day since has only confirmed what my heart knew from the very beginning. This man is my husband, my covering, my king, my Christ-like Shepard.
They say that what is meant for you will always find you, and Immanuel did find me. Every step I took. Every place I went. Every dating app I deleted and almost didn't redownload (lol)... it all led me to him.