The first time I saw him, I was twelve. His sister, Tess, and I had become good friends at girls camp. We made journals, shared bonfires, hiked and shared a cabin. One afternoon, during a Youth Conference trip, I saw her brother. I still remember he would come and hug his sister, he was very sweet. I didn’t know anything else about him, and honestly, he was a cute boy who happened to show up in the background of a memory I didn’t think would become my future. But life has a funny way of circling back. Years later, I had just finished college and moved back to Los Angeles. I decided to check out a young singles ward church service, not expecting much and certainly not expecting him. But the moment I walked in, there he was. Older. Taller. Definitely still cute. He was in the stand just finishing up from playing the piano. He looked very much familiar in a way I couldn’t quite place right away. Then, I saw Tess and it hit me: He's Tess’s brother. One day, I was trying to befriend him after church choir. I mentioned we grew up in the same areas at church. I also mentioned we went to Youth Conference together. He's a very friendly guy and wasn't really friendly in that conversation, so I thought he didn't feel comfortable talking to me. Even though I wanted to make friends at church, I thought I would only talk to him if he initiated a conversation. We started talking two years later. What started as a casual “Oh hey, I know you”, turned into conversations, texts, and many dates. Before I knew it, there was this feeling that maybe this wasn’t just some random church run in. Maybe this was one of those full circle, meant to be kind of things. If you'd told twelve year old me that he’d grow up to be the man I’d fall in love with? I would’ve laughed and probably be very happy. Here we are. And now, I can’t imagine a life that doesn’t start and end with him. I know God was definitely preparing me to meet him.

Gaby fell in love with me the moment she saw me at youth conference back in the summer of 2012 ;) That's how I tell MY version of things. She and my sister Tess became fast friends through girls camps during the time Gaby lived in Los Angeles. That was the first stepping stone set in place helping us eventually find each other. It was when I really took note of her sense of humor at a going away party for our friend Tom that I truly knew that Gaby was someone I wanted to get to know better. It was always important to me to find someone who is funny and makes me laugh. PLUS, she’s incredibly beautiful, what an insane bonus :) I developed a HUGE crush on her after that party. I couldn’t stop thinking about her while I was traveling outside of California for the summer. She had been living in LA for almost two years by that time. After waiting and waiting and WAITING for her to ask me out, I finally decided to take control of things and ask her out to dinner myself. I jumped through some hoops though trying to get her phone number, I planned an entire dinner and pool birthday party for myself as an excuse to get her number. Bit of a convoluted plan, but it worked out well enough :) extra bit of info here: I kinda hate planning parties, going to parties is fine, but planning one myself? It’s no cakewalk for me, that’s for sure. But I wanted to go all out to get her number and have a chance to get to know her more at the party. Our first date together was a birthday present I gave to myself, and it's one of, actually no, it is THE best birthday gift I have ever received. Little did I know at the time how life changing that gift would be. That's how it all started. I first celebrated my birthday eating sushi with my closest friends, and then planned out a birthday party as an excuse to get the phone number of the person who is now my very best friend.