Rayleene’s Story I was invited to a Halloween party, but I really didn’t want to go since I had work at 3 am the next day. I also wouldn’t know anyone there except my friend who invited me, Brock, and another friend, Emma, who had also been invited. I was about two hours late, but I finally arrived. To my surprise, there were only about seven people there. Five of them were sitting around a table, Lance among them, talking and eating snacks, while the other two were the host, Will, and Brock. Brock introduced me as Ray, and I sat down at the table. Lance happened to be sitting directly across from me and asked what my full name was, so I told him. While sitting there, I noticed the guacamole tasted a little bland. I asked Will for a few ingredients and started fixing it. As I worked on it, Lance and I made small talk about the guacamole and how I thought I could improve the flavor. Once it was finished and he tried it, our conversation just kept going from there. Eventually, more people began arriving as the night went on, and even though I was meeting new people and socializing with everyone, I found myself drawn to Lance and kept gravitating back to him throughout the party. I finally left close to 2 am since I had to be at work by 3. But during my entire shift, I couldn’t stop thinking about him. After work, I found him on social media and sent him a message. From that day on, we started texting every single day, growing closer to each other. Not long after, Lance asked if I wanted to hang out again, we decided on dim sum since I had never tried it, and he was excited to introduce me to it. He picked me up, and the whole experience felt new and fun, choosing dishes straight from the passing carts instead of ordering from a menu. Afterward, we grabbed boba and talked for hours, the kind of easy, natural conversation that made it feel like I had known him much longer than I actually had. From then on, I found myself looking forward to every moment we spent together. Whether it was hanging out in person or talking on the phone late into the night, being around him just felt right. It wasn’t until one of those long conversations that we finally admitted how we felt about each other. Hearing that he felt the same way was everything to me, and not long after, we started dating. Lance's Story I met Rayleene at a Halloween party I didn't really want to go to. Coming off a busy ten hour shift (they sent me home two hours early), all I wanted to do was go home and sleep. I could always hang out with my high school friends another day and after talking to patients all day I felt socially exhausted. But for some reason, after getting home, I decided to shower and show up at my friends house for a couple hours. It couldn't hurt, and I didn't want to waste a short shift. When I got there it was the usual five guys sitting around a table eating chips and guac and talking about Star Wars. And then a girl showed up. A lab partner of one of my friends. She was friendly, had a striking smile. I introduced myself, we had an entire conversation about guacamole, and ended up basically just chatting the rest of the night. Talking to her felt so natural, so fun. Even as more people showed up, it still felt like it was just the two of us. A couple of week later, I took her out to dim sum. Just as friends. She said she'd never tried it before, and I insisted she was missing out. A couple of months later, I formally asked her out (she said yes). A couple of years later, I asked her to marry me (she said yes again). Oftentimes it is only in retrospect that you can see the little ways God works in your life. Looking back though, it seems as if He’s been pointing me towards Rayleene with bright neon arrows. She has been a blessing to me, an answer to prayers, and become the only woman I could ever dream of having as my wife.