We, together, have come to the decision to unite our lives as one in Christ. We seek to approximate the power of God's self-giving love by allowing our marriage to display a picture of Christ and His redeemed people forever. We recognize, with all humility, that we are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, and yet we know with all great assurance that at the same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope. Our mission is to seek to glorify the Lord in our actions through our unconditional, covenantal commitment to one another and Christ. We choose to become one unit, a team of best friends with deep oneness who bear each other's burdens, encourage each other through honor, build up each other's faith in study and common worship, using our differences as strength with the common goal to grow sanctified in Him as we live out of freedom in Him. For we love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19), and “Love seeks not itself to please but for another to bind them to His delight” (adapted from William Blake’s poem, The Clod and the Pebble ). Through our love for one another, may God be all the more glorified in our lives together till death do us part.

We met in April of 2025 at a party where spikeball became our first shared interest. Christian: “Little did I know, Alora Thompson, ranked #1 female spikeball player in Alabama, #33 in the nation, ultra spikeball competitor, would become number one in my heart.” Alora: “Of course spikeball would bring me the love of my life. I had no doubts.” We quickly discovered that our apartment complexes were directly in front of and behind each other. What a perfect excuse to walk to Samford Lawn together and carpool places. Alora: “The first time we hung out (playing spikeball, of course) after meeting, I knew I wanted to get to know Christian better. While I wasn’t looking to date anyone, I knew at the very least that Christian had the qualities I was looking for in a future husband. I wanted us to be REALLY great friends. So, naturally, I started bringing him bread and pastries.” Christian: “Ah, food—the highway to my heart… I was helpless.” Some might say we started dating in June, but we were intentional from the beginning. We even talked about not dating and decided to remain friends… so we hung out all the time. Alora: “I graduated in August 2025 and invited Christian to a small celebration on Samford Lawn. Knowing my entire family would be there, I was excited for them to meet him. I think we barely talked that evening. He was busy making good impressions on each and every family member.” Christian: “Knowing that I really liked Alora, I knew I had to win over the family. Unc decided I passed his test and invited me to the graduation party the next day.” That felt like a turning point in our friendship. At that point, it was pretty obvious that we both liked each other. Christian: “We started talking about her music. Alora is incredibly gifted at composing. She began sharing her heart with me and her walk with the Lord. My feelings just kept growing.” After six months of getting to know each other as friends and having many meaningful conversations, we officially started dating in October 2025. Alora: “He proposed in April, and I of course said, ‘yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!’ We’ll have a six-month engagement before getting married in October, which is both our birth month and the month we started dating. October is truly the best.