Peninsula Bible Church 3505 Middlefield Rd, Palo Alto, CA 94306

We met at the John Jay Institute in Pennsylvania during the fall of 2019. During this post-grad fellowship, we studied politics, philosophy, theology, and church history with a close-knit group of other fellows in an academically rigorous setting. Isabella's first impression was that Lorenzo had quite a beard and strange musical taste (classic country music). Lorenzo's first impression was that Isabella was nice, smart, and upstanding, but nothing more than a friend. Several months went by, with countless conversations, meals, road trips, and shared memories with the John Jay group. We both noticed some attraction but had every intention of returning home, starting jobs, and continuing life as planned. However, the tipping point came two weeks before the fellowship ended, when we pulled a birthday prank on another fellow. The prank consisted of blowing up 72 large balloons by hand, sneaking them into the said fellow's bedroom at 3am, and then blockading her room with packaging tape and plastic bags. We also gift-wrapped her makeup, a random plastic water bottle, and a humongous can of refried beans, as well as her entire desk (laptop and all). As you may expect, blowing up 72 balloons by hand took a while, and, in conversation, we surprisingly discovered a similar sense of humor, shared love for God, and similar life values. Lorenzo happened to drive Isabella to the airport on the last day, and he seized the opportunity to share his feelings. He was so distracted during the conversation that he got lost and drove three circles around the airport! Isabella barely made it to her flight on time. We began long distance in December 2019, punctuated by trips to visit each other. Despite COVID travel restrictions and long times apart, our love grew deeper as we encouraged each other in our faith and shared values. We also bonded over lots of Zoom calls and Netflix parties! After lots of prayer and conversations with parents, we decided in April to get married.