We’ve always said our relationship was fate, because honestly, we’re not sure how else to explain how perfectly everything lined up. What are the odds that two people living ten hours apart would match online on the one random night that Christian happened to be passing through Nashville (where Paige lived at the time) during a cross-country road trip? He stopped for the night, we both opened an app and somehow we matched. From there, things took on a life of their own. We started talking on the phone… and then we just never stopped. For over a year, we covered every corner of life - past, present, future dreams, and everything in between. We built a friendship that felt oddly solid for two people who had never stood in the same room. When we finally decided to meet in person, we picked the halfway point between our cities which just happened to be Paige’s hometown. Of course it was. We were both nervous, but that first weekend in Johnson City ended up being so natural and so fun that by Sunday we were already calculating how long it would be until we’d see each other again. Thus began Year One: long distance, lots of weekend drives, and countless “meet me in the middle” plans that turned tiny towns and backroads into strangely sentimental memories for us. Then Paige landed a remote job and was ready for a change of pace from Nashville. So in Year Two, we decided to try living in the same city. Within weeks of the move, Paige ended up in the ICU and Christian never left her side. “In sickness and in health” showed up early, but it made it pretty clear we were in this for real. The next two years were spent three minutes apart...close enough for spontaneous dinners, countless sleepovers, and learning each other’s quirks in ways only proximity allows. It was the slow, steady kind of building that doesn’t always feel profound in the moment but somehow becomes the foundation of everything. Year Four brought the big milestones: moving in together, combining our belongings (RIP to many duplicate kitchen items), and finally, getting engaged! Looking back, the whole thing feels like a string of coincidences that somehow added up just right. And now we get to keep going, side by side, and write the next chapter together.