A Fateful FaceTime How did Marina and I meet? Great question, let me tell you! Marina's cousin, or "Momo," became a friend of mine. One night, out of the blue, I received a text from Momo. This was seconds before I put down my phone and called it a night. The text requested I join a FaceTime call talking about philosophy, a topic I always delight in dissecting. I decided to join for a few minutes. This is when my most lovely Marina and I first saw each other. After much laughter and sore cheeks from incessant smiling, I went to bed... hours later. Needless to say I was already heavily interested in Marina's beautiful face and mind, and found a way to schedule another "philosophy debate" so that I could see her again. Was it an accident? Well actually, it was. See, it was not just Momo and Marina on this call, but also Momo's sister, Elaria. Elaria was revealed to be the architect of our fateful meeting, as she suggested a random scroll through Momo's contact list to choose the fourth person to be added into the debate. By Elaria's suggestion, Momo scrolled until my soon to be wife Marina said "stop," landing on my name. So that's how it happened! After the second FaceTime, I texted Marina, and it was the start of the rest of my life with my best friend. Beginning Stages Very quickly, Marina and I began spending so much time talking with one another daily. She went from "not liking FaceTime" to FaceTiming me for a whopping 4 hours and 23 minutes, the very first time. From then on, we FaceTimed every single night. We very quickly fell in love. Her humor was something I was so lucky and blessed to be able to end my day with each night. I never went to sleep with anything other than a smile on my face. I constantly wondered what I did to deserve her. In addition to being absolutely hilarious, she was the smartest and most beautiful woman I had ever known. Still, with every day that passes, this fact only becomes more clear to me. While Marina began journaling her feelings for me, I was sending her gifts. We had a long road ahead, being that the relationship would be almost exclusively long distance for the better part of a year. I realized in less than a month that Marina was the one for me. I think she was realizing it too. Strong conviction, being that we had not even met in person yet... The First Meeting On August 21, 2021, we finally met in person. She arrived at my church, and the moment I saw her, every part of my body lost all functionality. I could barely walk back to my seat, my jaw was shaking, and my teeth were chittering, as if I was in the middle of an arctic snowstorm. I was so nervous to see her; nervous to face the reality that I could be meeting my wife. The moment the service ended and I walked up to her, we both greeted each other with an exuberant "Hi!" It was clear she was also very nervous to meet me, and that everything we shared over the phone was real. From then on, it was like I was with my best friend of many years. Crazy In Love While there is much to tell about our story, I must draw this to a close. There were many cute things that we did for one another throughout our relationship. When our first date came to a close, Marina left me with a note detailing her confidence that we were setting on a lifelong course of love. The crazy thing... she wrote the note before we met in person, and it was all perfectly accurate of our meeting. While she was back in Chicago, in addition to sending her gifts, I began writing and mailing her letters. We passed journals back and forth that we would write entries in for one another over months at a time. I created a playlist of our favorite songs which spelled out "Will You Be My Girlfriend?" (psst, see below). We have laughed and loved so hard. I cannot wait to see what the future holds. M+B forever ♡ https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/from-brandon-to-marina/pl.u-kv9lbRduX5XPa7