About Us

The Zach and Meghan Story

We both grew up in Sioux Falls, SD. Zach graduated from the Catholic High School, O’Gorman. I graduated from Washington High School the same year- 2008. We both started college at South Dakota State University in the fall of 2008. Zach was seeking a degree in Music Education and I was studying in the Biology department aspiring towards medical school. We managed to go about an entire year never meeting each other until we both began working as Orientation Leaders for SDSU’s New Student Orientation Program our Sophomore year.

Although Zach supposedly had his eye on me from a distance, I was much too focused on school to notice until this point. We started dating February of 2010 and had a great time getting to know one another, pushing each other to strive for holiness, and gaining a zeal for prayer and evangelization.  

While it was difficult at times, as all relationships tend to be, we discerned that marriage was in our future. Zach proposed to me on the Feast of the Assumption (August 15^th) in 2011. It was a wonderful day I will never forget.

We spent the next year preparing for our wedding, getting ready for graduation, and interviewing for FOCUS!

We had discerned that we wanted to commit the next years of our lives living out the New Evangelization as missionaries with the Fellowship of Catholic University Students. So, we finished our degrees (Zach with a Vocal Music Education degree and myself with a degree in Consumer Affairs/ Event Planning- things change!)

...and two weeks after graduation got married on May 11, 2012 in Sioux Falls, SD at St. Katharine Drexel Church. It was the best. We were surrounded by all our family and friends, which made the sacrament even more special and the reception even more fun!

We had two weeks after our wedding before we would load up and travel to Champaign, IL for FOCUS training. So, in that time we cranked out all our thank you cards, Zach finished his long-term substitute-teaching job at the Brookings Middle School, and we discerned the Lord was calling us to start our family right away! It was an atypical start to a marriage, but one we cherish dearly. 

We made our way to Champaign where we spent the next five weeks in a dorm room during our Missionary training. During those five weeks we began the daunting process of fundraising our salary alongside learning all the ins and outs of ministry. While at training we found out we were to be placed in Houston, TX at the University of St. Thomas. It took us by surprise, but we were excited for the new adventure! We made a month long stop in South Dakota where we packed up all our things, finished our fundraising and on our last day of packing during the first week in August, we found out we were pregnant! We were so excited at the prospect of our new baby, but I was not looking forward to the long car ride in those first few weeks. But, we pushed through, and after stopping ‘on the way’ in Seattle for my brother’s wedding we settled in Houston. We moved in to an apartment we had never seen before and hoped for the best. Aside from the occasional cockroach, it was a great place for a first home.

We spent the next year ministering to students on the college campus and anxiously awaiting the arrival of our baby! It was a challenging year filled with many simultaneous learning curves. We basically made every drastic life change possible in a matter of months: graduated college, got married, started a new job, moved across the country, and got pregnant. By God’s grace, we survived and through the many strains we were able to grow closer to one another and really began to understand marriage.

We welcomed our beautiful daughter, Flannery Ellen on April 3, 2013 and our lives have not been the same since- really we don’t know how we even lived without her before.  She is so much fun and has made parenting easy on us- she’s a great sleeper for the most part, and excellent road tripper we found, and aside from her massive ability to projectile vomit we really can’t complain. 

We love her so much, and take way too many pictures, but she really is the happiest little girl and best daughter we could have ever hoped for.

We are currently living in Murray, KY for our second year on staff. Zach is the Team Director for the team at Murray State University. This is a new campus for FOCUS, so it’s a blank slate for us. We are excited for this great opportunity and ask for your prayers as we continue to learn how to live a simple, Catholic life as first-world missionaries.