It took five dates and one Friday-afternoon phone call from a Crown Heights kitchen. I'd been thinking about Mendy for Sarah since Pesach — the curiosity in her, the steadiness in him, the way both families speak about Shabbos. I redt the shidduch in Iyar; they met for the first time three weeks later, in a hotel lobby in Brooklyn.
They came back from the fifth date and Sarah's mother called me before she called anyone else. I went to bed knowing. Two days later Mendy asked, and Sarah said yes, and a small crowd of family flew in from Miami to be in the room when it happened.
I've been a shadchan for twelve years and the moment never gets ordinary. Mazel tov to the Liebers, mazel tov to the Kesslers, and to Sarah and Mendy: may you build a binyan adei ad full of light, full of people, full of joy.