Christopher and Rachel could have met, but remarkably did not, during the three years they simultaneously attended the same high school in Albuquerque in the 1990s. Life took them on assorted separate adventures until 2021, in the thick of a global pandemic that you may recall having just a bit of an effect on life here and there, when Rachel was reluctantly scrolling along a dating app and alit upon the most arresting pair of blue eyes she (or face it, anyone) ever saw. Turns out those eyes belonged to Chris, and luckily his interest was equally piqued when she reached out. First date options were pretty limited in pandemic times, so they picked up drive through coffee and then spent the afternoon getting to know each other in a park during the kind of gale-force spring windstorm that New Mexico loves to send. There was pretty much no coming between them after that day.

Since then, all their adventures have been together. Chris has become a trusted friend to Rachel’s delightful daughter Edie. Eventually the world opened up again, and they discovered a mutual love of cinema and hole-in-the-wall burger joints, of fancy cocktails and thrift shopping. Together they’ve traveled to Taos and to Pittsburgh, to Denver and to Vancouver Island, to the Texas Gulf Coast and to Disneyland. Chris has mentored Rachel as a photographer, and Rachel has defied the dreaded Sweater Curse and knitted garments for Chris. They’ve added two dogs to the pack, and sadly lost one, and adopted three cats, bringing the total at the time of this writing to four dogs, three cats, plus a bearded dragon and a handful of fish.

Above all, they have loved each other. Anyone who has spent time with Rachel and Chris immediately sees the gratitude they have for one another, the way they support and lift each other and place the needs of the other before their own, how they each know beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they are the luckiest one.

Thank you for sharing this journey with us so far. We can’t wait for what’s next!