Our adventure began in October 2013 when Michael took a chance and messaged me on Facebook, and the rest, as they say, is history. It was love at first sight, and I still remember the moment I saw him skating toward me for our first date, wearing his “chocolate” shirt and the biggest smile. We love to joke that we were each other’s birthday gifts, since we met right between our birthdays, which are just ten days apart. A few weeks later, on 11/10/13, Michael asked me to be his girlfriend. I remember laughing and telling him, “Aww, you should have waited until tomorrow—11/11 is when you make a wish, and it would have been so cute.” From that moment on, we made 11/11 our special day, celebrating each year with a wish for our future together. But leave it to fate to bring us full circle, as we now get to be married on 11/10, the day that was truly ours all along. Almost ten years later, on our 10-year anniversary, Michael asked me to marry him at our favorite place, the beach. We decided to take a stroll before our anniversary dinner, and I noticed he was acting super nervous as we watched the sunset. I remember asking him if he was waiting for something as it was starting to get dark, and that’s when he dropped down on one knee and popped the question. As we were walking back to the restaurant, we unexpectedly ran into some of our friends, and I was so surprised to see them there. It turned out Michael had planned for them to be there secretly, taking photos of the big moment from afar. They had been stuck in California traffic due to an accident, which is why he was waiting so long to finally ask the big question. It was as I love to say, imperfectly perfect, because we ended up having a movie magic moment where a spotlight lit up the beach enough for us to take a picture capturing the moment. Since that first message, we have spent nearly half of our lives together, growing, learning, and building a life we could not imagine without one another. Every October, we celebrate not only another year of life, but another year of life together and the family we’ve created, including our beloved cats, Mitsy and Sulley. As we step into this next chapter, we are so grateful to continue this journey hand in hand, surrounded by the people we love most.