Stephen and Lydia met coincidentally during the Arnold Classic Sports Festival on March 1, 2024. By chance, they bumped into each other while working out at Worthington Pro Fitness. Lydia was organizing a joint powerlifting practice for multiple college teams, while Stephen was lifting with friends on powerlifting prep. He thought she was really cute and ended up approaching her to ask if she could take a picture of him and his friends. They started talking about their mutual ties to Liberty University. Then, he pretended to leave his hoodie in the gym so he could come back and talk to her again, eventually giving her his number. Lydia, being a cautious girl, was nervous and didn’t end up contacting him after their first meeting 😅 A couple months later, Stephen and Lydia kept randomly bumping into each other at national powerlifting events, so Lydia took it as a sign! She reached back out to reconnect, and they started getting to know each other through phone calls and handwritten letters. Then, Stephen came to visit Lydia in Columbus for the first time in March 2025.

Stephen planned to take Lydia back to Lynchburg, Virginia for his graduation from Liberty University’s nursing program. He gave her the impression that the trip was only for his graduation and “graduation pictures,” but he had something much bigger planned. Little did she know, Stephen had gathered some of their closest friends and family not for graduation pictures, but for their engagement! While taking beautiful pictures overlooking the mountains and rolling hills, he got down on one knee and asked Lydia to spend the rest of her life with him in front of their loved ones. & She said YES!!!