Fate truly brought one couple together after they met when one of them accidentally texted the wrong number – having now been married for 12 years and having six kids.
Brenda Rivera Stearns, 35, believes the mistaken text was ‘an act of fate’, as she was originally going to send it in the morning but ended up doing so later – with her now-husband Isaiah, 40, receiving the message just half an hour after getting a new phone number.
You have to admit, that’s pretty wild as meet-cutes go.
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Brenda says she was trying to send a friend an excerpt from the Bible back in October 2009, but accidentally sent it to Isaiah.
They soon struck up a friendship, which eventually blossomed into a romance, despite the fact they were 800 miles apart.
The couple got engaged just four months after that life-changing text, and were married later than year in June 2010.
Brenda and Isaiah, who now have six kids together, believe their unlikely romance was all God’s plan.
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Brenda, from Ohio, US, said: "I was trying to text an old friend. I sent a Bible scripture message to all of my contacts, which at the time I didn't have many. Maybe only like ten people.
"A few minutes later, the phone number which I thought belonged to a friend replied saying 'Amen to that, who is this?'.
"I said 'Hey! It's Brenda, you know my sister. You were my Mom's neighbour.'
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"The number replied and said 'No, we've never met, my name's Isaiah Stearns.' So that's how it started.
"I was meant to send that text in the morning, but I was busy at work so didn't get round to it until later that evening.
"Isaiah had just got a new phone with a new company. That morning, the number wasn't working, so he had to go to the phone company and get a new number.
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"Only 30 minutes after he got a new number, he received my text.
"If the phone company hadn't made a mistake, and if I'd have sent that text in the morning, he would have never gotten my text.
"It was so weirdly orchestrated."
The duo began texting regularly between Georgia and Ohio, before Isaiah took the plunge and asked Brenda if she fancied a call on the phone.
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A month after the initial message, Brenda was still hesitant about meeting up in person, so her mum Rossy Rivera offered to go and see him instead as, helpfully, she lived in Ohio like Isaiah.
When Rossy returned from dinner, she told her daughter: “You’re going to marry this guy.”
Brenda, a content creator, continued: "I was so excited about liking him, I did romanticise it, and fantasised a lot but I was hesitant about how I was feeling.
"I think I was scared to open up my heart. I thought 'what if he's lying, what if he's someone else?'.
"I told my mom about him and because she lived in Ohio she said, 'Why don't I meet him for you?'.
"They ended up going out to eat at a restaurant. It was him, my mum and younger sister.
"They had dinner, a nice conversation, and then on the phone that night I said to my mum, 'What did you rate the conversation out of 10?'.
"She said to me, '11, you're going to marry this guy'.”
For their first date, they went for a walk along a river and over a bridge between Cincinnati and Kentucky, which Brenda said was ‘beautiful’.
“It was such a confirmation that it was the right choice,” she said.
Brenda said it felt like ‘fate’, adding: “God's finger was orchestrating every step of our relationship, for sure."
She sees their love story as being like something straight out of a rom-com, and hopes it inspires others to know there’s no ‘right or wrong way to meet somebody’.
"When other people hear about it, they're always so surprised,” the mum-of-six said.
“They think we should be in a Hallmark movie.”
Brenda posted a video online about how they met, which has now racked up more than 2 million views.
It was captioned: "13 years ago I sent that text by accident never expecting him to keep my number and call me back! I’m so glad he did."
Naturally, many social media users were bowled over by the adorable tale, with one writing: "The Hallmark Channel needs to make this love story into a movie called Wrong Number Right Person."
Someone else commented: "I think you sent that text to the *right* number. Beautiful story!"
A third added: "Six beautiful lives from just one mistaken text! Beautiful family!"
Topics: Life, Sex and Relationships
Jess Hardiman