Wedding announcement
Published November 14th, 2006 in LifeI am delighted to announce that Sheena Lu and I will be married December 22, 2006 in a small, private ceremony at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Urbana, Illinois. She is the love of my life, and I am humbled that she will have me as her husband.
It’s a remarkable story, and I’d have a hard time believing it if it hadn’t happened to me. We met way back in 1990 when I was teaching English at Central China Normal University in Wuhan. Sheena was a first year graduate student who had to take my course as part of her general requirement, along with 250 or so other students. It didn’t take long for her to stand out from the crowd, however, and she quickly became one of my favorites. It wasn’t just the quality of her work either, but her curiosity, intellect, wit and thoughtfulness that set her apart. She dropped by for office hours, arranged outings and was simply a good friend with whom I enjoyed spending time. She even invited me to her parents’ apartment for dinner a couple of times, and was one of the few students who met my folks when they passed through town at the end of the school year.
We keep in touch by letter for a while when I returned to the U.S., but with time the letters slowed and eventually stopped, and that was that.
Or so I thought. I’d always regretted losing contact and tried to track her down from time to time. I even sent an email to her last known workplace when I was living in Beijing in 2003 on the off chance that they’d know where she was, but never got a reply. Everything changed though in the winter of 2004. In packing up my house to move to Champaign-Urbana I came across one of her old letters, in which she mentioned applying for the Johns Hopkins program in Nanjing. With that little bit of information in hand, I summoned my mighty Google-fu and found a single mention in a Hopkins alumni newsletter. I shot an email to the JH alumni association, who immediately forwarded it to her, and a day later we’d found each other again.
While I was in Beijing that summer visiting my friends Kai and Stacy, I arranged what was supposed to be a quick visit to Suzhou to catch up in person. All of a sudden it was as if the intervening 14 years has been a blink of an eye; we still had the same easy rapport, but even more so if that’s possible. Four days turned into more, and, well… you can guess the rest.
There’s so much more to tell, but I’m not a good enough (or patient enough) writer to do the story justice. Suffice to say, we’ve been flying back and forth across the Pacific for the last year, and have been giving Skype a good, solid workout. I proposed in May, and we’ll be married at the end of the year, just over 16 years after we first met in that Wuhan classroom. We still have a lot to work out logistically, but we’ll manage. As Sheena once wrote me,
No doubt that God has made perfect arrangement!
Everything is there.
78 Responses to “Wedding announcement”
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Wow! Congratulations to you both!
All’s well that ends well. Congratulations!
WOW
I mean wow
congratulmations
this is great news and couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy!
hopefully you’ll visit StL so we can share a celebratory toast down here?
I am so, so happy for you! It seems like no time has passed since you came back from China all aglow because you had found her again. This is wonderful.
Hooraaaay!
Congrats to the both of you!
Congrats! Typing w/ 1 hand, baby in other. I’m really happy for you!!!
This is wonderful news, Kurt. I remember how excited you were to once again have found Sheena. It’s great to see she must have been as excited to have found you again!!
I still have a hard time believing it too–such a great movie-like story!
Kurt, there is no nicer guy in the world, and you deserve all the happiness karma can dramatically provide! After all, the ladies DO love you!
You’ve always been a great writer/story teller, but this posting takes the cake. It had me in tears, Kurt (what can I say….I’m a softy).
I am so happy for both of you, and wish you the best. Take lots of pictures and come back to St. Louis soon to introduce us (your chicken night friends) to your wife. We’ll behave!
Susanne
What great news! (I second everything Jenny wrote.)
You did a superb job of getting your story “out there” on your website. And a happy story it is! We are all happy for you and Sheena
Congratulations, you two!
congrats, kurt!! i’m so happy for you both!!
Yay!
Adding my congratulations and best wishes for your life together.
Once again… Yay!
Ok-
I’m looking for Russ Colombo & Al Bowlly pictures on google for a CD mix of musicians of varied Deaths (Colombo-accidental firing of antique pistol via matchlight & Bowlly by WW2 bomb), and the 4th selection is Kurt Groetsch.
Very high congrats to you & your betrothed. What should we bring??
Ha! I swear happiness has fallen more often than rain lately. This is great, great news.
Kurt & Sheena! I am so very very pleased to hear that you are getting married. Kurt, you are such a kind, funny, and amazingly warm person and I couldn’t be any happier than I am right now. I love looking at your photots of your travels in China and can clearly see the joy that you two share in being together! Oh happy day!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Looking foward to meeting you soon, Sheena!
Congrats. I cannot wait to meet the lucky lady who will cuddle with you. *Sniff* Your old bassist from the Kavanaugh Band misses you. If you are still here, please drop by the Mayor’s Gala on Dec. 30 at the Ten Mile House.
That’s an amazing story! Congratulations. I look forward to more photos.
Kurt, great to hear that you are getting married, wish you two a life long happiness together, congratulations. I might be moving back to the states soon too with my wife, hopefully will get a chance to catch with you sometimes.
Kevin
holy smokes!
that’s amazing, congrats!
Rah!!!!! So happy for you.
Congratulmations, for the great time of you two!
yay! all is right with the world.
You did it! I assumed that you are now a married man! I am so happy for you! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! What a great present to everyone! LOVE LOVE LOVE!
hi-
i don’t know you, but i found this post looking for a friend’s wedding website and i just wanted to say this is such a lovely story, and the two of you look so happy. it really warms my heart and though we are strangers, i just wanted to add to the many well wishers and say congratulations, and thank you for sharing your happiness in a public place and passing such joy and love out into the collective consciousness. all the best to you and sheena, and thanks for making me smile today.
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