Melanie & Cesar

I never wanted to join a dating app, and Cesar almost deleted the app right before we matched. I almost didn't swipe right on him because he shared the same name as my dad and my brother. But I just couldn’t swipe left on a seemingly amazing man simply because of his name. That same day, we matched! We started chatting on the app right away and quickly made our way to texting when he asked for my phone number the next day. Then, we had long, late-night phone calls and FaceTimes every night about God, our families, and deep conversations about pretty much everything. It was hard to see each other in person since he lived in Jacksonville, FL, and I lived in Miami, FL (a 5-hour drive away). But he made the effort to drive down to see me for the first time after 3 weeks, when he asked me to be his girlfriend. He met my family the same day, and the following day, Cesar was asked by my pastor at my church what his intentions were. Just as we had talked about before, Cesar said that we were dating to marry and he had every intention to make me his wife one day if it was the Lord's will. A couple of months later, we met up in Dallas, Texas, and I met Cesar’s family. The 300-mile distance between us in Florida has been tough, but we make it work by flying and driving to see each other on weekends and meeting halfway in Melbourne, FL. It became even tougher when, less than 5 months into the relationship, he got deployed for 6 months overseas for his job in the Navy. The big time difference and our busy schedules made it really hard to spend much time together. Some days we talked on the phone or FaceTimed for hours, and some days we only got to talk for 10 minutes. Cesar made it easier, though. He prioritized me and our calls even when he was busy and his days were packed with work or his side hustle as a barber. On his one week of leave on deployment, he, his family, and I flew to Rome for a quick vacation. He finally came back to the States after the 6 months in early April 2025, and proposed about 3 weeks later. Now we are in the midst of wedding planning, hoping that our finances and tight budget will be enough to have a small, yet very beautiful and memorable wedding. We are eternally grateful to the Lord first, for allowing us to be together according to His perfect will, and to Upward for being the means through which we met.