Our story began all because two people swiped right in the middle of a global pandemic and decided to go for it. Let’s set the scene: It’s May 2020. Mark was peer pressured into joining Bumble, and I joined just for fun, with an underlying hope I would meet someone. We matched and talked for about two weeks on the app before Mark asked me to dinner. We hit it off right away. A week later, I invited Mark on one of my solo trips to Galveston to watch the sunrise. On this date, while walking on the beach and chatting under Pleasure Pier, we both felt the spark in the air and knew that this was real. Fast forward to three-and-a-half years later on December 26, 2023. Mark took me back to the exact spot, got down on one knee, and said, “Alyssa Brooke Barentine, would you make me the happiest man in the world and be my wife? Will you marry me?” It was the most magical moment of my life. We are excited to enter into this next chapter of our life together and begin our little family with our fur baby, Baylee Mae.