After having moved to Ooltewah, TN in October of 2024, I had been church hopping in the area to see which church I liked best. By the end of the year I still had not made a choice. (There’s a lot of Adventist churches in the Chattanooga area!) Before the first Sabbath of the new year, I texted a friend (Christina Donesky) asking what church and Sabbath School she goes to. She invited me to sit with her and her “aunt” and “uncle” for church and attend Sabbath School with them afterwards. I arrived a little late and slipped into the pew next to Christina, not really paying attention to who all was sitting on the other side of her. I have little to no memory of what transpired between church and Sabbath School other than Christina explaining to me that she sits with her long-time family friends at church and that their son was there visiting for the holidays. Christina and I walked over to the Hulsey Wellness Center for Sabbath School and found our seats. Her friends arrived shortly after us. That’s when I first saw Brad. Saturday night I received a text from Christina randomly telling me that Brad was single in case I was interested. I admitted that I had actually wondered that. She talked him up and offered to pass my number along if I wanted. Not expecting much to come of it, I gave her permission to pass along my phone number. It couldn’t hurt. I received a text message from Brad the next day and we’ve been talking every day since. Sometime in February (I think), I learned that Orville Donesky (Christina’s dad and a college friend of my dad) had something to do with our story as well. Having finished Southern’s online MBA program last May, I attended my graduation on May 5. My family and I visited the Donesky’s while we were in town. The next weekend Orville sent me this message on Facebook: “I have someone in mind I would like to introduce you to if you are interested and feeing adventurous.” I rarely open Facebook and didn’t see the message until August. Because my last conversation with Orville had been related to job hunting and since job hunting was still at the forefront of my mind, I thought he was referring to some sort of job networking opportunity. I was still living in VT at the time and didn’t know when I might be back in TN. I ended up forgetting to respond to Orville’s message and had completely forgotten about it until Brad asked me if I had received a message from Orville.

Late May last year near the end of a visit to my parents, after church and SS, Orville Donesky quite proudly announced to me that he had found my girlfriend. Then he proceeded to do Orville things 😂. At the time I was open to meeting people, however, I had very low expectations of being set up based on previous experiences. Fast forward a few months, I’m once again wrapping up a visit with my parents at first service at Collegedale church. Christina was sitting with my parents and I. At some point mid “commercials” Jenna shows up. I did not see her walk in. I happened to glance across my parents and noticed more than 1 set of legs past my mom. That of course made me curious, who is that? I leaned back and saw only her hair. First thing that popped in my head was that’s who Orville was talking about last time I was here. Hunch turned out to be right. It took me a minute, but I figured out her name fairly quickly. Keep in mind I’m heading to the airport that afternoon after church and Sabbath School to fly back to California. Walking into Sabbath School, I proceeded to sit down next to Christina (Jenna just on the other side) and hear about how the year is kicking off and all about Christina’s excitement about her upcoming hairless cat play appointments 😜! Had barely gotten to the car after Sabbath School and who texts me but Orville Donesky. “So Bradley, what do you think? You got her phone number.” I responded saying no, I didn’t work that fast, don’t have any idea if location was a big priority, and didn’t have a natural opening to ask… Orville’s response was to promptly tell me to get off the toilet! (classic Orville). Later towards the end of my flight to Sacramento, Christina passed me Jenna’s contact and said “It’s your move!” Since it was 11pm PST when I arrived home I waited til Sunday mid morning to reach out, and we haven’t missed a day since.