Before I was a nurse, I use to work as a CNA on the day shift in Washington with Jane, the sister of Christine. Jane worked nightshift, but night and morning we would do shift handoff. Over a few years I got to know Jane and she got to know me. A couple of days before Jane went off to maternity leave in advance to giving birth to Elijah, we had discussed Elijah's name. Specifically the fact that he had been named after Elijah in the Bible. At some point during this discussion - as I believe Jane already knew that I was single - she suggested that I go on a blind date with her sister who lived in California. She showed me a blurry picture of her, and her family at Disneyland. She also said that Christine was a Christian. It was a longshot, but I still agreed. The next morning at work Jane asked me a few more questions, and then told me that she would text if Christine agreed. From that day on Jane went on maternity leave. I believe it was a few days later, but Jane did eventually text me. The exact text, marked 3/8/2021 is this: "I told my sister about you. Surprisingly she said yes to a date. And by surprisingly cause like I said she's really picky too. Anyways, if you are both single coming end of may/beginning of June. She'd like to go on a date with you. If you still wanted too lol". Come June, I still had not heard from Jane but I still was thinking about this potential date. Something I still believed to be a long shot. My friend eventually convinced me to send a text message on June 2nd to Jane asking if Christine still wanted a date. I learned through the text that Christine had arrived the day before, and we eventually did set up the first date on June 4th. Come the first date, I was very anxious - as most would be - so I showed up early and walked around a bit. Our first date was in downtown Vancouver, WA at a Thai restaurant. When Jane arrived with Elijah and Christine, she said she would be back in 2-3 hours. She then left promptly to go run errands. My first impressions of Christine was that she looked like she didn't want to be there, but she was very beautiful. This was understandable to me, to go on a date with a total stranger 100s of miles away from home. But, it was my job to win her over. After three hours the time had gone by super fast, we had gotten along really well. We shared similar interests in nerdy things, family and values. Most importantly I had every reason to believe she was a true follower of Jesus given the answers she had given to the questions I had proposed to her. At this point we would have easily gone longer, but Jane had to pick up Christine. The hard thing was that Christine was leaving in three days, I worked those days and I had also found out that Christine rarely came to Washington. At this point I felt it wasn't going to go further simply because logistically it would be difficult to develop a relationship with such a distance and no foundation. I still held out hope however. That night I was surprised to learn that Christine invited me on a second date. I agreed of course. After getting off late of a 12 hour shift, and after getting punched in the face by a patient, Christine and I had a nearly 8 hour 2nd date. We were out so late, Jane started to get worried. From there Christine went off to California and we have been zooming/skyping and visiting each other since.

In early March 2021, my sister, Jane unexpectedly texted me a long description of a man she had worked with over the years and gotten to know him fairly well. She talked about how this man would be perfect for me to meet and become acquainted with. I simply replied, “He seems nice,” and then ignored her right after that.  Two days later, Jane called to talk more about the guy she had mentioned. She tried to convince me to go on a date with him. She suggested it would be perfect to do so when I visited her in Washington in June. I initially said, “No,” but a few days later, her persistence finally persuaded me to say “Yes.” I remember her excitement when she said, “Yay, you’ll like him!” I didn’t think much about it and went along with my life. Three months later, on June 1st, I arrived in Washington. My sister mentioned that she had planned many activities for my visit and I might not have time to meet up with the guy she had mentioned before. She also informed me that the last time she contacted James was three months ago regarding our upcoming date, and he had not reached out to her since then. I didn’t mind it, as I didn't know the guy and thought he might have forgotten or even found someone else. The following day, while Jane and I were shopping, she received a text from James. He was asking if I still wanted to go on a date with him and whether I was still single. I accused Jane of lying, insisting she must have reminded him about the date. However, she denied it, saying that James had remembered on his own and I thought, "Wow, this guy must have been waiting this whole time." Finally, on June 4th, we met for our first date.

Before the engagement, Christine had made it explicitly clear that she wanted a proposal (and ring) to be a complete surprise and certainly not in public. Jane and I conspired. After deliberation we chose a place in Washington called "Thornwood Castle". It was an English manor with a decent amount of property that you could also room in. Christine liked castles, and this was the closest we were going to get on the west coast of North America. We planned to do this trip on the way to Jane's birthday as a cover. The cover story worked, she was a little suspicious as this wasn't the sort of place Jane liked, but regardless it was beautiful enough to be universally admired. That evening, I had to buy a couple of hours for Jane and her friend, so that they could set up a "She said Yes" mini-party in the room we were staying. Adding to the challenge there was limited space because a wedding was also taking place at the location. So I couldn't propose too early, nor too late. In reality there was only a few places on location to "sight see", and I wanted to also choose a beautiful spot to propose. I was also carrying around a jacket to keep the ring conspicuous. Eventually I found a spot in the garden, and after circling it a few times I eventually proposed to Christine. I had not recited anything and just said "Christine Cariaga will you marry me". At first she was confused, and in complete shock but she eventually said "Yes!". Also a surprise was the little mini-party that Jane and her friend had set up for us.

It was the week of my sister’s birthday, and I traveled to Washington to celebrate with her kids, along with her friend, and James. When I asked Jane where we were going for her birthday, she told me we were celebrating at Thornwood Castle. I was surprised, as it didn’t seem like Jane’s style, but excited and thought it would be nice to visit a castle. Upon arrival, the castle was beautiful! After checking into our room, Jane and the others went to get dinner, leaving James and me to explore. I suggested the garden first, but James insisted we wait. We wandered around, came upon a game room and played ping-pong for a while, and after about ten minutes, I wanted to see the garden. James insisted he wanted to keep playing, I thought it was weird that he wanted to stay, but I thought wow, didn't know he liked ping-pong so much and so, we played for about thirty minutes more. Finally, we went to the garden, which was stunning. I texted Jane to check on dinner, and she replied that she was back. I told James it was time to go, but he wanted to walk around a bit more, which I found odd since he already explored the garden twice. This time, he was going over/behind bushes and whatnot, and I genuinely thought, wow, he must really like the place. He came to a stop surrounded by roses and hydrangeas, as I looked around, he suddenly asked, “Christine Cariaga, will you marry me?” I was shocked and speechless, but after a moment, I managed to gladly say, “Yes!"