Tessa's close friend, Kristen, created her online profile on a site called Coffee Meets Bagel in June of 2019. Chris created his profile, after moving from North Carolina to Southern California for an IT job at a non-profit called Joni and Friends. Then, a couple of weeks went by and Chris messaged her expressing interest in not only her profile but asking her very thoughtful questions. About a month later, after many messages exchanged, Chris asked her if she wanted to meet. They decided on a pizza place in Santa Clarita on July 21st. When they met, both were very nervous. Over some not so great pizza, they learned a lot about each other. They ended up talking until the restaurant shut down and then a few hours talking outside too. After that, they met up again for a few more dates, until Chris had to leave to serve at a Joni and Friends Family Retreat in Oregon. It was on the night before he left that they discussed the status of their relationship. He said that they should pray about it, talk and pray with mentors, and talk together when he got back. Well, throughout that week, he continued to connect with Tessa, and when she picked him up from the airport a week later, they made it official.

On the last day of September, Chris let me (Tessa) know that he wanted to go to Santa Barbara on Saturday, unfortunately, I had already committed to babysitting her close friend's kids. So I proposed that we go on Sunday, which is exactly what we did. That Sunday (10/4/20), we woke up, got ready, even though Chris had a headache, and then drove down to Santa Barbara. Despite the headache, Chris still wanted to go, and it was a beautiful day. We explored State St, and got boba. After we got an afternoon snack, we went to Thousand Foot Steps Beach and took a couple of towels. When we got to the beach, we would walk for about 10-15 minutes and then stop, sit and talk, and then keep walking. I had NO IDEA what Chris was planning! After the second time of doing this, he said he had a question for me (usually we do this when we have a deeper/thought-provoking question). So I immediately looked at him (instead of the ocean), and when I turned he asked me, "Will you marry me?" While he was doing this he grabbed a small box out of his pants pocket and displayed a gorgeous ring, that had a pear-shaped sapphire center stone with a double halo of diamonds and two peek-a-boo diamonds on the underside of the setting. Of course, when he asked me I said, "Yes. YES. Oh my gosh! Yes!"