When I moved from Orlando to St. Louis, I had a feeling that I would meet my future spouse in my new city but I didn't know how quickly that would happen. Moving in itself was hard but moving to a city where I didn't know many people during a global pandemic was really hard. So, I decided to give online dating a try. I had my reservations about online dating but I knew I had to start doing some thing to try to meet people.. anyone.. friends, a boyfriend... anyone. Almost exactly 11 months after I moved to St. Louis, Brandon reached out to me on Hinge. We had already matched on Bumble, but on Bumble the girl has to reach out first and I dropped that ball. I thought Brandon was out of my league and I didn't want to waste my time on someone I didn't have a chance with. I had also been struggling with some depression and anxiety and was very eager to move back to Orlando, so again, I didn't want to waste my time or anyone else's for that matter. So when Brandon reached out immediately after matching on Hinge, I was cautiously optimistic.

We met on June 6, 2022, went on our first date on June 18th, and officially began dating on June 30th. I have a lot of family in St. Louis but I had no intentions of introducing Brandon to them just 5 days into dating. My family and I had plans to spend the 4th of July on the lake and watch fireworks that night. After talking about our plans, I decided to invite Brandon since he didn't have anything going on. So 5 days after we officially started dating, Brandon met about 20 members of my family and we were all stuck on 2 boats with each other for the majority of the day.

That was when I knew Brandon was someone special. You would've never guessed that was his first time meeting everyone because he fit in right away and soon after, they all began telling me how much they loved him. The same was true when he met my parents and then my friends.

Brandon is thoughtful, passionate, humble, selfless, kind, gentle, laid back, caring, hard working, and loyal. He has the best sense of humor. He balances me out where I can be extreme. He matches, and sometimes exceeds, my weirdness. And most importantly, he loves the Lord. Brandon has been an answer to so many prayers and I'll never be able to fully express how grateful I am that one of the hardest things I've ever done (moving to a new city) brought one of the greatest blessings.

-Anna

Trying online dating can always be daunting but you have to trust that it is the right thing. When Anna and I first matched on Bumble, Anna was too cool to talk to me. So I always remind her that she stood me up. When we matched on Hinge I was going to make sure that she would notice me this time!

We instantly connected on some of our favorite things, like Disney and my love of baseball. Since she was visiting her parents out of town at the time, we constantly texted back and forth for a week or so before we finally met in person. Since I really wanted to impress her, we went to the best restaurant in the St. Louis area, Chili’s. There was never a break in our conversation and I knew when we were beating teenage children in laser tag later that night that she was someone special.

She is a persistent, joyful, and caring person that will always want me to be the best person I can be. She is my biggest supporter and the person that I can trust with all of my hopes and dreams. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with her and am excited to see what the future and the Lord will bring us.

-Brandon