From Tristan:

Our story began in June of 2022 at New Vision Community Church’s Vacation Bible School.

Living in the Bible Belt, it’s pretty common to hear that church is the best place to meet your future spouse. I was raised in church, so I’d heard the sentiment many times growing up. Still, it’s not always easy to find someone with whom you not only share common interests but whose morals and values also align with yours—speaking from experience. I had decided not to actively seek out a relationship and instead let it all happen in God’s timing.

And that’s when I met Christian.

That week at VBS I was volunteering in the pre-K class with my best friend, MaKayla. I slipped out of the class into the warehouse at one point to gather some supplies for an activity and nearly ran into Christian. He stopped me and said, “Tristan? Hi, I’m Christian.”

I knew of Christian because I had graduated high school with his brothers, Dylan and Matthew. However, I only vaguely knew they had a brother; I didn’t know anything about him or even that he lived in Russellville. We had become Facebook friends at some point, though, which is how he recognized me.

We shook hands—maybe? It was a blur—and went our separate ways. Later that evening, our pastor Brad Rogers introduced me to him, not knowing we had already met. Brad not-so-subtly waggled his eyebrows and encouraged us to talk to one another. We laughed, but we both knew there was undeniably a spark between us. I had never experienced anything like it before. I just knew.

Christian messaged me on Facebook Messenger after seeing me again at VBS the following evening, and the rest is history.