We met online through a dating app. It was actually somewhat accidental! Jacinta was getting ready to move to California, but had been browsing a few dating apps, just seeing what the dating scene was like. Joel had been on dating apps for a little while, but hadn't found anyone that he found super interesting. Jacinta had paid for one of the apps and had planned to cancel the subscription just before moving, but forgot. She saw the charge on her account and thought, "Well, I should try to talk to someone since I paid for this whole month." After logging on and looking, she went through the profiles that had already liked her. She swiped left on a bunch of profiles, but found Joel's profile to be pretty normal looking. So she swiped right! Joel saw the notification pop up that he had a match! So he sent a message to Jacinta. We spent every day talking to each other (texting, phone calls, FaceTime). We decided to celebrate Jacinta's birthday together, so Joel flew down to California to visit. The rest was history from there! We both realized pretty early on that we found what we wanted in a partner.

After spending time together in California and having Jacinta move back to Washington, it was pretty evident that our relationship was moving toward marriage. We both wanted similar things in life, had shared values and beliefs. Jacinta dropped some not-so-subtle hints by sharing rings she liked. Little did she know, Joel had already been looking as well. We had a lot of hurdles to jump going into the holiday season. We had a lot of challenges that brought us closer together as a family. We spent our first Christmas together. Elijah and Eliana picked out a special gift for Joel. They wanted to give him something to show that they appreciated and accepted him. They gifted him a "Bonus Dad" card, which says that while he may not have been there when they were born, he still loves them and wants to be there are they grow. After opening this gift, Joel said that it was fitting that they gave him that gift, because he wanted to share a gift that was not only a promise to Jacinta, but also to them. Jacinta opened the gift that Joel had and it was a ring! We were all excited to celebrate after enduring a challenging season.