Our story begins back in 2016. Jason had recently moved to Long Beach from Palm Springs and was attending Long Beach City College, while Jade was studying at Cal State Long Beach and enjoying her second year living in Southern California. Ironically, we both grew up in Northern California, completely unaware of how close our paths had probably come to crossing long before we ever met. Like many modern love stories, ours officially began with a swipe right on Tinder. Jason quickly decided the best way to win Jade over was with a timeless joke: “Do you know Joe?” Curious, Jade replied, “Joe who?” wondering if they somehow had a mutual friend. “JOE MAMA!” Jason responded proudly, believing this was the ultimate test of humor and personality. Luckily for him, Jade laughed instead of immediately unmatching him. Her response: “Hahahahaha, well you got me.” And honestly, the rest was history. A few dates and countless laughs later, we both realized this was something special. What started with a terrible joke turned into ten years of love, adventures, unconditional support, and building a life together. Over the years, our family has grown quite a bit. We now share our home with three cats, a hedgehog, three snakes, a stingray, several saltwater fish tanks, and a 100-pound Golden Retriever named Leonidas, who fully believes he is a lap dog. While we’re finally making things official, the truth is — we’ve been a family for a long time already.