Since I was a young girl, my parents prayed for the man I would one day marry. They prayed for a Godly man who would love and cherish me, complement my passions and drives, and challenge me to grow. In a rather surprising, magical whirlwind, prayers were answered, and I found the one whom my heart loves—well actually, he found me! What a blessing it is to have faithful, praying parents. My relationship with Brendan is testament to the goodness, love, and grace of God. I look at Brendan and I see the earnest prayers of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, and loved ones. So, to those who prayed, thank you.

My first memory of Brendan Collins is seeing him play on the Sacramento Adventist Academy flag football team in high school. During one of the football tournaments at Monterey Bay Academy, I remember excitedly watching the SAA boys’ games with my girlfriends–not because we were dying to see the game, but because SAA had a cute quarterback who was a year older with to-die-for blue eyes and some impressively broad shoulders. He had a blonde buzz cut and was giving serious Chad Michael Murray from Cinderella Story vibes. Alas, he has no recollection of me from high school. Instead of feeling sorry for myself, I consoled my wounded ego and resolved to show him what he was missing—even if it was ten years later.

Years passed and the inception of our story found its roots amongst the Valencian orange trees in Sagunto, Spain circa 2016. We were both there studying abroad for the year. Brendan seems to never remember participating in the “studying” part, while I, on the other hand, seem to remember doing quite a bit of it. We had somewhat overlapping friend groups and found ourselves occasionally sitting near one another at meals, on a group trip to Rome and Florence, or on afternoon hikes behind the school campus. When my mom came to visit, she met Brendan and kept remarking about what a cutie he was, and although I agreed, it was not yet time for our sparks to fly. So, we each finished our time in Spain, bid all of our new-found friends adieu and traveled back home to the States.

Fast forward to May of 2023, I was drowning in the mire of my internal medicine sub-internship month and I received a text out of the blue from Kevin Cummings. He said he had an “amazing friend from NorCal” that would be coming down to visit, and he wanted to set us up on a blind date. I stood in my bathroom as I brushed my teeth, staring at my phone. I quickly did a cost-benefit analysis and decided that Kevin and his girlfriend (now wife) Sarah wouldn’t set me up with someone who would waste my time. I replied that I would be happy to go.

Some time later, I got a text from my blind date suggesting that we meet at Bricks and Birch. For a reason I cannot really articulate, I had a feeling that it was Brendan. I asked my brother if he had Brendan’s cell phone number, and sure enough, the phone numbers matched. As the time drew closer for our date, I started getting butterflies. I arrived at Bricks and Birch a couple minutes early and fidgeted in my seat. Brendan walked through the door, and we gave one another an awkward hug. He said I could order whatever I wanted so we split a vegan pizza that barely got eaten, in part because of the mutual nerves and in part because Brendan apparently hated vegan cashew cheese. What our date lacked in pizza eating, it more than made up for in conversation. We talked about books, podcasts, his job, my schooling, religion, politics, the whole gamut! Brendan recounted many of the memories that we shared from Spain and in a fun turn of the table since high school, it was my turn to say, “Oh really? I don’t remember you being there for that event.” Alas he was right, as he often is. After going through my photos from 2016, we did in fact share many experiences together, I just have a notoriously poor memory. We ended up sitting at the table in the heat and glow of the pizza oven until the restaurant closed. Upon saying goodbye and exchanging a second awkward side hug, I told him to contact me if he was going to be in town again.

To my surprise (and glee), he texted me the next day saying that he could be back in Loma Linda in two weeks. Two weeks later, we spent almost every moment from morning to evening together for three days. I decided to take a “sink or swim” approach and I plopped him into a myriad of social situations: my friend Jessica’s birthday pool party, ice cream with my sister Quincey and her boyfriend Jacob, church with Kevin and Sarah, the list goes on. I wanted to see how he fared in various settings, and he passed with flying colors. I was impressed but not won over just yet. That Sunday was Father’s Day, and he took me to meet his brother Jordan, sister-in-law Michaela, their baby Brettson, his cousin Britteny, and her boyfriend (now fiancée!) Colby. Seeing Brendan with his nephew and feeling so welcomed by the rest of his family was the clincher I needed. I was now well on my way to falling for Brendan Collins.

As the weekend ended, I remember thinking about how much I liked Brendan, how comfortable I was with him around, and how easy he was for me to talk to and be with. There was one small bump in the road though, I was leaving for a two-week trip to Europe with my family in a handful of days and, rather embarrassingly, I had five other dates with five other people lined up between my weekend with him and my departure to Europe, but I found myself only wanting to see Brendan. As we sat on the couch, I told him I had a rather awkward conversation to bring up. He nodded and encouraged me to proceed. I told him I had some other dates lined up but that I would gladly cancel them if he wanted to be exclusive. His eyes widened, he took a second to recalibrate and then confidently said, “Five dates in the next four days? Yeah, you should go ahead and cancel those. I want to be exclusive.” Later that night, I texted one of my best friends, Nicki Wallenkampf, all the exciting updates and she confidently stated, “You’re going to marry him, Madi. This feels different. You’ve never sounded like this before.” She saw into the future that day. In fact, many of my friends saw the effect Brendan had on me and could tell that he was special. They could tell how giddy, excited, and at peace he made me. It came as no surprise to anyone that we quickly knew we wanted to be with one another.

Milestones continued to be met when I introduced him to some of the people most important to me: pickleball with my parents, a poolside picnic with Mick and Lindsey, chats in the living room with Jenna, pizza night with Codrina, church with Jenny, random dinners with siblings and cousins, bible study with Annalise and Christian, the list goes on. Brendan fit in with it all so seamlessly. I occasionally sat back and marveled at how much someone could feel like such an easy extension of myself.

The night that Brendan and I officially became a couple, he looked into my eyes and told me that he was enamored by me. The next morning, I drove to my parents’ house and couldn’t help but cry as I recounted the conversation. I was too scared to say it aloud or to even whisper it in my heart, but I think that was one of the moments I realized I had fallen for him. I’ve felt that feeling again and again, many times over since, but perhaps my most favorite moment is when, on December 30th , standing on a bridge surrounded by snow and mountains, the love of my life got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I could hardly tell you what he said to me (I instantly started “ugly crying” according to my mother), but I willed myself to study his face and etch him into my memory forever. Brendan Collins will be my husband, and I his wife, and I revel in the joy of the thought.

Our story is fun, beautiful, and for me, even redemptive in many ways. It was crafted, from start to end, by God. He brought Brendan and me together, and I cannot wait for our story to continue to reflect Him and His plan for our lives.

Although Madi and I both went to Northern Californian Seventh-day Adventist academies that rivaled one other in sports, I have no recollection of ever seeing her during the many football and basketball games that we competed at. She apparently remembers me but I’m not sure how my fuzzy buzz cut, skinny frame, and square shoulders left such a distinctly positive impression on her. Suffice to say, I’m glad those days are behind me (although some would say otherwise—and they might be right). After years of passing each other by in high school, our paths intersected during our college years when we both ventured abroad to Sagunto, Spain. Although we weren’t close friends, our circles occasionally overlapped and it was during those moments that Madi left a lasting impression on me.

Fast forward seven years later, I was at a bachelor party for one of my best friends (also a longtime family friend of Madi and the Carters), Kevin Cummings, in May of 2023. Kevin’s friend Davis Carter was also in attendance. “Interesting,” I thought. I recalled the last name. This was the brother of Madison Carter from Spain! Despite being in a very busy work season, I found myself contemplating the possibility of reconnecting with her.

During a round of golf on the trip, I questioned Kevin a bit about Davis and began to think, “He seems like a decent guy with a good family.” And then, with little hesitation and no forethought, I blurted out, “what is Madison up to these days? Is she single?” He responded that she had been going out on quite the number of dates. Perfect! Maybe there was still time for me to get my chance too!

By the end of the round, I had convinced Kevin to put in a good word for me with Madi when he planned on seeing her at an upcoming wedding. Unfortunately, he didn’t speak with her on my behalf that weekend. I have never been one to be very forward when it came to dating girls, and I got the feeling that Kevin didn’t think I was actually serious about wanting to go out with Madison. However, after a relentless number of text messages to convince him of my sincerity, and discussing her with Carson Cummings at length while at The Atlas in Walla Walla, I had hoped I’d done enough to plead my case. I knew I wanted to go on a date with this girl.

From the beautiful, smart, and engaging girl I remembered from Spain to the person Kevin and Carson described to me, she seemed like someone I would love to get to know. Finally, after almost two weeks, Kevin reached out to her to set us up on a blind date. Because I was living in Walla Walla at the time, I had blindly booked a trip to Southern California for a long weekend without even knowing what day would work for Madi. Luckily (or perhaps by providence), we found a time that we were both free and we planned to meet on Memorial Day.

As I walked into Bricks and Birch, I couldn’t tell if it was my nerves or the pizza oven that made it feel like it was 110 degrees, but Madi immediately put my nerves at ease with her kind smile and easy-going conversation. After over 3 hours of talking about everything from our memories of Spain, our favorite podcasts, to what we were doing with our lives, we closed the place down. The sense of comfort and ease we had found in one another was so strong that I knew I wanted to book another trip back down to Loma Linda as soon as I possibly could. I didn’t want to overwhelm her with my excitement but knew I wanted to see her again. I talked over the situation with my sister-in-law Michaela that night and she gave me a piece of valuable advice: Madison seems like the type of girl who knows what she wants, be direct. That was all the prompting I needed, I booked another ticket that night, hoping that Madi would want to see me again too.

During my second visit, we were able to spend an extended amount of time together; the second date turned into a third, and then a fourth. To our collective surprise, on Sabbath we ended up participating in Communion together with our good friends, Sarah and Kevin. At Madi’s pleading request, we didn’t wash each other’s feet that day, but this awkward encounter still cracks us up. Before we knew it, our long weekend had ended, and it was time to part ways. After such a whirlwind weekend of meeting her family and friends, it was bittersweet, especially since it would be a while until we could see each other again and I felt like we had really grown close in our time together. I thought it went without saying that we were dating exclusively, however, I quickly realized that Madi was not on the same page. On my way out the door to catch my flight, she asked me a serious question. You see, she had 5 (!) other dates lined up throughout the week and needed to know my level of seriousness about her. “Should I cancel those?” she asked. I was shocked. After what seemed like an eternity of silence I responded, “Yeah, go ahead and cancel all of them!” This was a turning point for us. I knew that I wanted to be with Madi and this was the first time I’d said it out loud. Luckily, she felt the same way and happily canceled her dates.

Our next few months were filled with non-stop fun as we made a long-distance relationship work. We met up on the weekends from Southern California to Sacramento, and everywhere in between. From dinners and church to Madi's patient attempts at teaching me how to use chopsticks, to simply sharing moments reading together, we quickly fell in love with one another. I knew our wedding day was on the horizon.

Our dating relationship culminated on December 30, 2023, when I proposed to Madison during snowfall in the mountains of Mammoth, California. There was no better way to end the year than by having the privilege of placing a ring on my future wife’s finger and hearing her say “yes” to marrying me!

Getting to know Madi and her family this past year has been such a joy and pleasure. I've come to realize that Madi is probably the most well-liked person I know; people have only overwhelmingly positive things to share about her. The constant and beautiful smile she wears is something I look forward to seeing every day for the rest of my life. Being with Madi has taught me so much-- more than I ever could have imagined. I’ve learned how to be more open and candid, how to love and be happy in all circumstances, and that I am not always right about everything (no matter how much I think I am)! But most importantly, she has shown me what it means to be a true follower of Christ.

Now, more than ever, I am encouraged that God has a plan for each of our lives and that it is even greater than we can think or imagine. My relationship with Madison has shown me that even amid lonely, trying times, trusting in God’s plan has led me here, to her. It also doesn’t hurt to ask your friends to set you up on a date or two—thanks Kevin!

Many say, “when you know you know,” and that couldn’t be truer for us. However, our story is just beginning, and we are so eager to get started on the rest of our story. There are still many chapters and volumes left to be written and we are so excited for the adventures that lie ahead. We are so thankful to each of you for sharing in this beautiful chapter.