It was not a very fine evening in December 2016. Nika, without any serious intention, downloaded Tinder for the first time hoping this could take her mind away from the crazy day she had at work. While other guys' bios bored her with: “23 yo start-up CEO / 24 yo and been traveling to 100+ countries” (social media these days is… crazily tiring), she then found this guy with a bio that read: “dinner’s on me if ur real face matches ur prof pict. but the rule applies the other way round too.” His out-of-the-box bio description stole her attention. She swiped right on him, hoping this guy could bring a bit of fun and excitement in the middle of her crazy workdays.

The conversation, as expected, was so fun that Nika deleted her Tinder app on day 3, and Stan was her first and last Tinder match whom she met for a date. (By the way, he paid for that dinner, so yes, Nika won the bet.)

The relationship, as expected too, was full of ups and downs. They broke up once, decided to get back together. Broke up twice, same story again, they reconciled. Broke up a third time, but this time it really broke both of them badly. Nika swore to her friends (thankfully not to God) that this was really the end of it. But what is love without doing crazy illogical things? Yes, they decided to reconcile again in 2021 with one single promise to try their best for a better relationship this time.

The relationship went from a crazy roller coaster ride of ups and downs to a stable, fulfilling mountain hike. They restarted their relationship from the bottom and slowly walked themselves up. It wasn't all flowery. Sometimes one of them fell down; sometimes both fell down together. But with God, they helped and supported each other to get back up again—walking slowly, steadily, patiently, all the way to the top. It was indeed still a tough journey, but somehow very fulfilling for each of them. Finally, they realized that they couldn’t ask for better company throughout the journey.

And here they are now, after 8 years together, deciding to move their journey to the next mountain. Maybe it’s a bigger mountain. But they know that with God on their side, with each other, and of course with you supporting them in this journey, they believe they can overcome any mountains ahead of them.