It all started Thanksgiving 2021. At the time, I had just started my residency training and didn't have a lot of time for dating. But of course, everyone was encouraging me at the time to start dating since I was finally done with medical school. One weekend, my family had a Thanksgiving party at my cousin's house and we were all eating dinner on the back porch. My cousins, Jacob Chachen and Vincy Chechi, randomly asked if I was talking to anyone. When I told them no, they showed me a picture of Alex and begin to give me his background: Christian Malayalee boy, Software Engineer, Forbes 30 under 30, started his own company, and great family background. He sounded perfect until....they shared Alex was from California. For those of you who know me, I had every intention of marrying someone here in Houston and raising my kids in the same church I grew up in. But God had other plans for me. At first, I said no to Jacob Chachen and shared I was not interested and of course, he just shook his head and went into the house to find my mom and dad. A few minutes later, my mom and dad came outside and teamed up with Jacob Chachen and Vincy Chechi to convince me to give Alex a chance and to get to know him. Finally, I gave in and gave my permission to share my phone number with Alex's aunt who was working with Vincy Chechi's mom, Jacob Chachen, and Vincy Chechi to set us up. Two days later, I received a text message from Alex, and I remember it was a text that had me smiling. One text led to another and we would end up staying up late at night talking for hours. Our conversations never ended. Even if one of us fell asleep, we would just respond the next morning continuing the conversation. I remember praying each night after talking to him and feeling a peace surround me. Finally 2 months later, on my birthday, Alex asked to FaceTime. I remember being so excited. I wore my favorite blouse, did my hair, and did my makeup. That night when we connected via Facetime, I greeted a man in a hoodie and joggers, sitting in a chair with Legos and airplane models in the background. I worked so hard to look decent for our first Facetime date and Alex was in his pajamas. Despite this obvious lack of effort, I could not help myself from smiling the entire time. He was so sweet and made me laugh throughout the night. A month after this FaceTime call, Alex came to Houston to meet me, and the rest is history. I fell in love with Alex for his love for Jesus, his kindness, his intelligence, and his patience. He is my handsome, perfect man and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with him.

My journey with Janina began with a phone number, name, and location. With very little information to work with, I tried to craft my best opening line, “Hey Janina. Some aunties were conspiring to get us together. I’m in LA, you’re in Texas right?” 24 hours later with no response, I was nervous … she probably didn’t even want to respond to such a lame message. But before I had given up hope, she finally responded after working late that night. Since then, it’s felt like Janina and I have never stopped talking. I worried that in a long distance relationship, we would struggle to find things to talk about, especially with someone I had never met before. But Janina and I never had any trouble. Very quickly, she became the first text I sent every morning and the last text I would send every night. I remember my family teasing me saying “Hey Alex why are you smiling at your phone?” when they already knew who I was talking to. We grew from texts, to calls, to FaceTimes. Before I knew it, I was flying to Houston every 3-4 weeks to spend time with her. On our trips, we found we shared a love for good food. On her first trip to LA I made a list of every great restaurant I could find. I jam packed our schedule with the tastiest food, all in hopes of convincing her that if she wouldn’t move to LA for me, at least she might do it for the food. Luckily for me, Janina thought I was enough, but the food was a great bonus. Janina and I always say it must be God’s plan that we were able to build a strong relationship despite the distance. I’m proud to be her partner in life, and I’m so looking forward to starting our lives together.