I’m convinced…her spirit drew me out that night. Guised as an invitation from a friend to bounce around Culver City on a random Thursday night, December 13th, 2018 etched itself into the fabric of my heart as the moment a sacred journey began. The moment my motley crew snuck into the backdoor of a speakeasy as a self-described multiracial retired boyband, a light shone down from the front of the room on what I can only describe as beauty personified. It was an indescribable beauty that penetrated beyond the physical and enveloped the intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and eventually, me. That night Andrea and Isaiah were inseparable…and that hasn’t changed since. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It was a Thursday night and I wasn’t even supposed to be there. I had changed my plans at the last minute and every single day since I’m grateful that I did. He walked into that lounge and forever changed my life, my heart and my future. He approached me and asked, “What are you guys celebrating?” We toasted with tequila and we’ve been celebrating ever since.

Standing beside my parents’ car as Andrea stood in the background engrossed in conversation with my mother, I told my Dad I would take Andrea to Bali New Year’s Eve as a Christmas surprise. Even though it had only been four months since we met—and that weekend the first time my parents had the chance to learn why I already loved her—I knew our journey would be intertwined forever. Planning a surprise proposal in Bali sent me on covert meetings and conversations with her parents Patricia and Silver, consultations with friends, and constant communication with our hotel to ensure we had the private table on the infinity pool overlooking the Bali forest for the last dinner of 2019. As we strode to our beautiful dinner following a mini fight, I knew my rebuffs of the tour guides who asked if we were getting married had thrown her off the scent and paid off. She just expected a nice dinner, but as my heart beat out of my chest after dessert and I feigned a New Year’s Eve speech, all I could hear as I kneeled on one knee with ring in hand was: YESSS!!! It echoed what my heart already knew. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ He told me to pack my bags for warm weather and bring my passport, and it was while we were in the Lyft at LAX that he revealed we were on our way to Bali. I admit, I searched for hints of a proposal (maybe a box-shaped indentation in his pockets or a bag that he wouldn’t let out of his sight), but when he did none of the above I stopped searching for signs. After several days it was New Year’s Eve, and if you know Isaiah you know he does EVERYTHING big. So although it was incredibly impressive, I wasn’t all that surprised when he rented out the only table on the resort’s infinity pool for our NYE dinner. It was stunning, it was magical, it was Isaiah. At a half-hour before midnight, dessert had just been served, the fireworks were starting to go off, and before I knew it the man of my dreams was on his knee asking me to share the rest of his life with him.