This is such an exciting post to start with! There is no point trying to save the best news for last here, so I’ll just lead with…

This beautiful young woman, who is 19 today, is getting married! (If you’re picturing that scene from Father of the Bride where Steve Martin sees his daughter as her five-year-old self, announcing at the dinner table, “I met a man in Paris, and we’re getting married!”, you’re not alone!)

Romilly and Davis met in the Fall semester of 2022. She was taking an English comp class as a senior in high school at the local Christian college where four of our kids are now students. Davis was a college freshman. In my usual state of complete back-to-school disorganization, I had been late to order school supplies, and Romilly turned up for her first day of classes with no notebook. Davis offered to lend her paper. Towards the end of the semester, they sat together and were partners in editing their final papers. And so it was that a boy caught Romilly’s attention for the first time.

The next semester they didn’t have any classes together, and by summer she had committed to go to a different college a few hours away, but she hadn’t forgotten him. It was Pippa’s boyfriend Silas who suggested that she should get in touch with Davis over the summer. It was a radical idea for our introverted girl, but after much thought and discussion, she sent him an email. He had recommended a systematic theology book to her when they had worked together in class, and she genuinely did want to get the name of the book again. (Really, that’s why she emailed him. Honest!)

That was the beginning of a beautiful summer of near-daily emails and phone calls. She still went away to college in the Fall, but not for long. After one semester, she transferred back to our local college, and Davis has been a part of the family ever since.

(Pencil sketches of all the kids, by Romilly while she was away at college)

In December, Davis moved back home to South Carolina. When Romilly visited him in January, he asked her to marry him (with Trevor’s blessing!) They plan to get married in June, and she will move down there and finish her degree online.

While engagement news does tend to eclipse everything else, I just have to gush about this girl a little bit. I have truly never known anyone like her. She is never not busy working on some (usually self-assigned) project. She does pattern-testing for a well-known (in the crochet world, at least) fantasy pattern designer. She writes stunning, thoughtful essays on big topics at Petra Publications, a website she and Davis work on together. She has written at least three more fantasy novels since her first during COVID lockdown when she was 14. She’s worked on graphic novels and individual comics, her latest being “Romilly but Very Small”. She will hide in her room for hours and finally emerge with ink on her hands and face, looking for a cup of tea.

(“In Which Romilly Washes her Hands” and “In Which Romilly Works at the Writing Lab”)

For all the time she spends lost in her various pursuits, when we do finally catch a minute to chat, she continues to be one of the wisest people I know. She thinks and feels deeply, and she has become a person that I can share my heart with and know that I will find compassion and insight.

I’m not ready for this girl to move away from home. Not at all. But I know that she is ready, and I know I am placing her in good hands.

Happy birthday, Romilly Alice Young, your last with that name! I am so excited to see what the future holds for you and Davis. May God bless you abundantly as you seek after Him in all you do.

#youngnomoore2025