Connect How did your love story begin?

As untrue as it sounds, our relationship began with an accidental text message. Mary was assigned to be a leader of a small group we were apart of in college. She called me to introduce herself and I missed the call. She left a voicemail so I called back and after getting no answer I get a text message that just read “<3”. Mary was using her phone when I called and hit a button that ignored the call and sent a pre-programmed message. Before we ever met, our relationship began with a heart.

What is your favorite memory you've shared as a couple?

It feels impossible to pick a moment that is our favorite. We spend as much time as possible together every single day. We wake up early together, we have coffee and breakfast together, we play New York Times games cast to the TV while eating breakfast, we come home to eat lunch together, we eat dinner together, and we go to bed together. We spend all of our weekends together. Our favorite memories as a couple happen every single day, creating routines and doing everything we do, together.

What would you do with $20,000?

$20,000 would truly be life-changing money. When we got married, we were 20 and 21 years in old. We were still in college and had very little money for several years after we got married. In order for both of us to get through college we have a fair amount of student loans. Being able to take a big chunk out of that debt would be amazing for our future. We have worked very hard to get to a place where we feel financially stable and this money would help secure that feeling for the future.