The details of their first meeting are still up for debate. Timothy, visiting from Maryland, swears they spoke briefly by his booth on the afternoon of October 19, 2023, while Paola, traveling from Tennessee, remembers meeting him later that evening at dinner. Either way, neither expected that a work trip to the Society of Adventist Communicators (SAC) conference in Springfield, Massachusetts, would be where their love story began. That weekend, they connected easily, talking about work, family, faith, and the things that mattered the most to them. Paola wasn’t looking to date at the time, but she was drawn to Tim’s kindness, humor, and sincerity. Tim, meanwhile, was eager to get to know her from the beginning, even though he did give her a fake number at first!* By the end of the weekend, they parted ways as new friends, unsure of where this connection might lead. Over the next several months, they stayed in touch through long and meaningful text messages that gradually deepened their friendship (Tim estimates that in the first month alone, they exchanged over a million characters!). A little over a month after their first meeting, in December 2023, Tim traveled to Nashville to see Paola. Both sensed there was something special there, but, at Paola’s request, they decided to take things slow. After many prayers, visits, laughter, and even a few hiccups along the way, they knew they had found something worth holding onto. On April 26, 2024, Tim officially asked Paola to be his girlfriend. Since then, the two have shared wonderful adventures, had countless silly and deep conversations, traveled to different parts of the country, supported each other through tough times, gotten to know and love each other’s families, and continued to fall more in love every day. On October 19, 2025—exactly two years after they first met—Tim got down on one knee and asked Paola to marry him. Paola says this is the second easiest “yes” of her life; the first will be when the pastor asks, “Will you take Tim Kosaka to be your lawfully wedded husband?” *Tim's requested clarification: Number was not actually fake. It was just his business number.