In late December 2021, Lisa's cousins, Michelle and her daughter Emme, reached out to Lisa telling her that they had been "scheming" and had someone they wanted to set her up with. They hadn't mentioned this to Thomas yet, as they wanted to see if Lisa would be open to it first. Every time Lisa has been asked out or asked to be set up in the past, she always said no out of fear and the unknown. She was terrified to get close to someone again. But this time, she wondered, "What if God is trying to bring me someone and I keep saying no out of fear?" So this time, because it was her cousins and she trusted their insight and judgment, she said okay.

Michelle and Emme loved their roles as Cupid and reached out to Thomas.

Numbers were exchanged and Thomas reached out to Lisa after Christmas. However, the good ol' iPhone versus Android rivalry kicked off right away, and Lisa and Thomas sometimes wouldn't receive each other's texts. Lisa thought it was odd that Thomas would ask her questions about herself and then not reply when Lisa would ask for his own answers, and Thomas thought Lisa just wasn't replying and wasn't interested. In fact, Thomas told Michelle to "temper your excitement, I don't think she's interested."

Once Thomas and Lisa discovered their phones weren't sending/receiving all their texts, they laughed it off and decided to meet at church for the first time right after the New Year on 1/2/2022. However, one New Years Day, Thomas caught Lisa off-guard and asked her to dinner that night instead. As someone that loves time to mentally prepare, Lisa was panicked. She had never been on a date with someone she wasn't already dating, let alone a BLIND DATE.

Dinner came and they finally met in person at Cheesecake Factory for the first time. Lisa put her phone in airplane mode because she knew her best friends would be blowing up her phone the entire night, and in doing so, she also missed the text from the restaurant informing them that their table was ready. She lost their reservation lol. Panic set in. "I blew it already! He's probably so mad!" Luckily, they were able to get seated 5 minutes later and all was well. After dinner, Thomas walked Lisa to her car and while saying goodbye, Lisa said, "Sorry for being so awkward, I've never done this before." Thomas smiled and told her she wasn't awkward. Lisa said, "Okay well have a good night!" Thomas replied, "You too!" to which Lisa then said, "Yeah, me too!" and immediately threw her hand to cover her mouth out of embarrassment. "See! I'm so awkward!" Thomas laughed and walked away. Lisa called Michelle to tell her the date went well, "but I don't know if he'll want to go out again, I was so awkward."

Spoiler alert: He texted her saying they should go out again.

The first few weeks and months were fun. Lisa was terrified of opening up to someone again, and I'm sure Thomas had his fears too. Every time Lisa would come to Thomas' house, she would sit in the very corner of his sectional couch and hug a pillow the entire time because she didn't want to be touched lol. But Thomas was patient. He went at her pace and never made her uncomfortable. Lisa would even lightheartedly tell her friends, "It's not like I'm going to marry him..." as if trying to convince herself...

Spoiler alert: They quickly fell in love.

Another spoiler alert: THEY'RE GETTING MARRIED.

Funny things happen when you finally stop trying to be in control of everything and let God take the reins.

Lisa finally took a chance. She let Thomas in. And he let Lisa in. And very soon they realized that God clearly brought them together on purpose, in His own time.

In December 2022, Lisa went to visit a friend in England for their birthdays and she made sure to visit her lifelong dream of Ireland as well. Thomas met up with Lisa in Ireland. On December 13, 2022, they went to the Cliffs of Moher, another dream of Lisa's. Incredibly, this is also the county that Lisa's Heffron side of the family is originally from. The visitor center even had her family crest in it. Just before leaving the Cliffs of Moher, Thomas got down on one knee and asked Lisa to continue to go on many adventures with him for the rest of their lives.

Another dream of Lisa's.

And here we find ourselves today.

Planning the wedding of Thomas and Lisa.

Thanking God for the heartaches and wild journeys that ultimately brought them here and together.

Cheers to the future Mr. & Mrs. Childress and their many more adventures to come.