Our story begins in 2013 back at The Master's College where Rebecca was roommates with Chad's cousin, Brittney. At that time, Chad was a freshman and was getting acquainted with college life, which meant he was taking advantage of free, home-cooked meals at his cousin's house. Not much came of those times between Chad and Rebecca, but this set the stage for the rest of the story. Fast forward a year, and Brittney invited Rebecca to spend Thanksgiving with the Balakian family. After a transportation mix-up, Chad ended up driving back two hours to pick Rebecca up from school. Chad was on the market, but to his dismay, Rebecca was dating someone else. However, they both enjoyed the ride and conversation was not lacking. A month later, Rebecca graduated from Master's and moved back to Arizona... Three years later, in 2018, Rebecca moved to the Central Valley. Well-meaning friends attempted to set her and Chad up, but each left the game night thinking the other was not interested. This now brings us to winter 2019. During a meeting with his mentor, Chad was strongly encouraged that he was ready to pursue a serious relationship. Chad heeded that advice. Rebecca instantly came to mind so he promptly asked Brittney for Rebecca's number. Unfortunately, Rebecca was in Africa for work, so he had to wait a few weeks until she got back. He boldly called her up and asked her to dinner. Rebecca considered it, and almost turned him down. Fortunately for both of them, she told him "yes"! It turned out to be one of her best life decisions. It only took a few dates before they both knew they wanted to marry each other.

On July 27, Chad and Rebecca took a day trip to the coast, but the day did not go as planned. A three hour drive turned into a four and a half hour drive due to traffic. Then, after almost an hour of trying to find parking, they gave up on going to the beach and headed to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Unfortunately, they couldn't find parking there either. At this point, Chad was becoming quite anxious. They decided to just start driving down the coast until they found a beach with parking. Fifteen minutes later, they found themselves strolling along a not-too-crowded beach. They climbed to the top of a sand dune and sat together looking out over the ocean. During their time dating, Rebecca and Chad wrote letters to each other. Now, sitting on the beach, Chad had one more letter for her. After reading it, he promptly got down on one knee and well... you know the rest!