Renee and Giovanni have always trusted God to lead their lives in the right direction and that trust led them to each other. At age 22, Renee had graduated from Azusa Pacific University with a degree in Psychology. She had moved out into her first apartment and had been working with special needs children. She enjoyed having fun and doing things that included an adrenaline rush like skydiving from an airplane. While in college, Renee had begun doing kickboxing. The drive to learn more than kickboxing took her on a journey throughout Orange County where she looked for a true Mixed Martial Arts studio where she could learn to do Muay Thai. When she found Spider Muay Thai, they offered her a few free classes. She decided to schedule a class and see what it was like. Having graduated from Cal State Fullerton, with a degree in Kinesiology, Giovanni was busy working as a personal trainer. He was 23 and had been spending many evenings at Spider training in Muay Thai. He’d been training in Muay Thai for the last 2 1/2 years when Renee happened to arrive for her very first lesson. Renee was very excited to be learning Muay Thai. She got there right on time for her first trial class. From across the mats Giovanni watched her as she was warming up. He was captivated by her enthusiasm, eagerness and the spark she had in her beautiful blue eyes. But, he was a bit too nervous to approach her. So, Renee had her first sparring experience with another fighter. Who just turned out to be, Christian, Giovanni’s brother. The same lesson, Renee changed partners. Giovanni continued to watch her but he did not go over to her. He watched as one of his friends sparred with her. Renee had such a great time, she decided to schedule another lesson. Giovanni did not know that she’d be returning but he did hope to see her again. A whole month later, Giovanni finally decided to try to line up with Renee so they could spar together. During their sparring time, Renee did not hold back on the punching and kicking. Giovanni did, though. Renee told him he better not hold back. So Giovanni got a few strikes in and one got her good. Giovanni felt so bad he bought her flowers and kept them in his trunk for the next time he saw her. During their sparring breaks, Giovanni would talk to Renee to try to get to know her better. He knew she was competitive and determined but wanted to know who she was and what she wanted in life. Renee really liked how much of a gentleman Giovanni was around her. He was very old school, opening doors for her, protecting her on the street and making sure she got in her car safely. After being partners at Spider for a little while, they often walked out of the gym together when their sessions were over. Giovanni also loved running. He’d been a high school runner and he was interested in seeing if Renee was open to going with him. He wanted to have her come run with him to get to know her even better. On one particular night, before they left the gym, he went over to ask her to join him on a run. Renee said, “Actually no. I don’t like running.” Giovanni was a little bit disappointed by that response and he let her walk away heading outside. Before she could leave Giovanni decided he was going to try again and he shouted her name out across the parking lot with no shame. She stopped in her tracks, turned around and waited. He asked her to go out with him for dinner. And, they did. They went to Habana and did wine tasting afterwards. They got along so well even though they had a lot of differences. After their first date, they realized they had just clicked. They talked all the time, spent all their free time together, sparred at Spider, trained late at night and did workouts in the morning together. Falling in love with each other was easy.