I (Lina) moved to St. Pete FL in July 2021 from Toronto, Canada (oh Canada) for work and to be part of a church plant headed by my pastor and his beautiful family. As life became more real in FL and I started to make friends, I befriended a couple, Nick and Isabella, who lived in my apartment complex. Little did I know that these friends would later introduce me to the man I would be marrying! Jimmy moved to St. Pete FL in April 2022 from Virginia after needing a change of pace, not knowing that he was going to meet the woman he would marry only days after moving! Jimmy was catching up with Nick and Isabella at the pool of my apartment complex, when I walked by after a workout. We were introduced as "Nick's friend Jimmy who just moved to FL" and "Lina, our friend who lives in this apartment complex"- we both thought nothing of this exchange. As the days went by, we all hung out as a group of friends, bonfires, lunches, going to church, Bible study and as Jimmy was introduced to the church group we had been building in St. Pete, his questions about God were beginning to be answered. With the help of some men in our church community and our pastor Wade, Jimmy decided to become baptized as an adult and our relationship began full throttle! Never could we have imagined it would happen this way but God's timing is the most perfect and unexpected timing. Since then, we have become best friends and have continued to learn more about ourselves, each other and Jesus. We have had many memorable adventures together and plan on continuing to do so with our cute dog Kai!

The proposal was truly special! We went downtown to the US Capitol to "take pictures". Jimmy had it all planned out for us to be able to go to the top with a police escort to overlook the Christmas tree. As we took pictures with Jimmy's family surrounding us, he proposed! We called my parents after- who had been eagerly awaiting all day for the call and went out for dinner with Jimmy's family. What an amazing night!