A popular question to ask a couple is how they met. We want to know their origin story. In romantic comedies, this is called a meet-cute. One real-life couple’s story would make an excellent romantic comedy. Somebody call Nancy Meyers quick.
Brenda Rivera accidentally sent a text message to the wrong number. Instead of her friend, she got Isaiah Stearns. Fast-forward 13 years, and the happy couple are married with six children of their own. Sounds much better than online dating.
“I sent an uplifting Bible verse. A few minutes later, I get a reply that says, ‘Amen to that. Who is this,’” Brenda recalled to Today.
Brenda tried to explain that they met through her sister, not realizing her mistake. “He’s like, 'I don’t think we’ve ever met, my name is Isaiah Stearns,'” she recounted.
Brenda figured out what went wrong and apologized for bugging this unknown man. Isaiah was kind of into it. He asked if he could call her sometime.
Brenda was rightfully skeptical. "I thought it was a little weird," she admits. He did not know anything about her, including her age or appearance.
Isaiah called the next day. “Obviously, I didn’t answer. I was a little creeped out. But I was also sort of hoping he’d leave a voicemail so I could hear what he sounded like,” Brenda recalled. Isaiah came through on the voicemail. “I could just tell he was very genuine. So I decided OK — I’m gonna call him back,” she said.
The first phone call went great. “We had an immediate connection,” Brenda revealed. They added each other on Facebook and talked about meeting up when Brenda visited her family in Dayton, Ohio. She was living in Georgia at the time, and Isaiah was about 50 minutes from Dayton.
Brenda was attracted to Isaiah, but he was not the kind of guy she had thought she would end up with. “I thought he was cute, but he wasn’t the type of guy I was typically drawn to. I pictured myself with a dark-skinned, curly-haired, Spanish-speaking guy who loved salsa dancing — basically the opposite of him. Isaiah was bald and he didn’t … know how to dance,” she said.
All that changed as they got to know each other long distance. A lunch date with Isaiah and Brenda’s mom sealed the deal.
"You’re going to marry this guy," Brenda’s mom foretold.
As always, mom was right. Brenda and Isaiah have been married for almost 13 years. They have six children: Victoria, 11; Veronica, 10; Samuel, 9; Vanessa, 7; Benjamin, 4; and Ezra, 1.
“I love us so much. Sometimes I’ll just look at my children and my husband and I wonder what I did to deserve all of this,” Brenda gushed. She believes Isaiah is the “perfect partner” no matter what his hair or dance moves are like.
