Tony and Jamie first met through a mutual company where Tony was a top leader and trainer. Jamie had won a contest to spend the day with him at a Minnesota Twins baseball game for a business mentorship experience. They spent some one-on-one time talking about business, had a great day, and went their separate ways. At the time, they were both in completely different stages of life and never imagined they would one day end up together. But Jamie remembers immediately admiring Tony’s passion, determination, and the way he carried himself. Fast forward five years later, Tony was working in real estate in Florida while Jamie was working for a realtor in Minnesota. One Facebook post changed everything. Jamie liked one of Tony’s real estate posts, and he messaged her asking if she remembered him. What started as a quick Facebook conversation turned into a phone call that lasted until 5 o’clock the next morning. That week alone, they spent nearly 40 hours on the phone getting to know each other. They talked about everything — life, family, goals, values, and even took the love languages quiz on the very first night. Neither of them expected the instant connection they felt, but it quickly became obvious that something special was happening. They were both completely blown away by how compatible they were in almost every area of life. From their shared love of sports and travel to their personalities, values, and sense of humor, everything just felt natural. Even though they are very different in certain ways, those differences somehow complement each other perfectly. Where one has weaknesses, the other has strengths, and together they naturally bring out the best in each other. They always joke that they somehow know how to dance through life perfectly together — even though physically dancing together is definitely not one of their strengths. What makes it even funnier now is that Tony absolutely hates talking on the phone — and honestly, small talk in general — so the fact that they spent that much time talking is still completely out of character for him. To this day, they both laugh about how crazy and unexpected it all was. Tony originally planned to fly to Minnesota to see Jamie, but she already had a trip planned to Phoenix to stay with her cousin Ric. Instead, Tony flew there to meet her, and Ric offered to let Tony stay at his house. Jamie was incredibly nervous because by then they were already falling for each other over the phone. She still remembers the nervous stomach ache on the drive to the airport while telling Ric how nervous she was — but the moment they pulled up and she saw Tony, her first thought was, “Oh… he’s cute.” Of course, before Tony could fully win Jamie over, he first had to get through her niece Sophie. Tony still laughs about the conversation they had outside when Sophie very seriously asked him whether they were already in a committed relationship. You’ll have to ask Tony for the full story. Not only did they immediately hit it off with each other, but they also instantly fit into each other’s families as if they had already been part of them for years. From that point on, they never went more than a few weeks without seeing each other, whether that meant flights between Minnesota and Florida or meeting somewhere in between. After months of long-distance flights and spending an almost insane amount of money just to see each other, they realized they simply didn’t want to do life apart anymore, and Jamie made the move to Florida. They always say how crazy it is that life brought them together the way that it did. It has to be because Gram prayed.