Usually only a ploy seen in a romance movie, this couple’s relationship began where so many films do – with a stranger getting a text message from someone he doesn’t know.
This particular romance story begins nearly 14 years ago, and shows how a little luck and just a bit of faith can help bring two people together.
Back in 2009, Brenda Rivera Stearns was determined to help a friend out by sending them an inspirational verse from the Bible. She typed in the phone number, and sent a message:
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit…”
However, that message didn’t make it to her friend. Instead, it landed on the phone of Isaiah Stearns.
Brenda told a Today reporter that she immediately got a response to her text. “I get a reply back saying “Amen to that. Who is this?,” she said. “And I’m like, ‘Oh, it’s Brenda.”
Baffled, Brenda tried saying they had met through her sister, but quickly Isaiah told her that wasn’t the case.
He wrote back, “We’ve never met, but by the looks of your text, I can see that you love God, that’s awesome.”
“I viewed it as, this is another person who can help me in my walk with God,” Isaiah said.
Brenda was quick to apologize, but Isaiah wasn’t going to let her get away that easily. He asked if they could talk again.
“I thought it was a little weird,” Brenda said, since neither of them knew anything about the other.
The very next day, Isaiah called.
“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 said.
He did. In the message, he told Brenda the Bible verse had made his day better.
I could just tell he was very genuine. So I decided OK — I’m gonna call him back,’” Brenda said.
They talked, learning about each other slowly. Brenda told him she was living in Georgia. Isaiah in Dayton, Ohio. She said her mom and sister lived in Ohio too, about an hour from his home.
“I said maybe we could meet up when I visited my family,” she says. “We had an immediate connection.”
They two quickly shared their Facebook pages with one another.
“I thought he was cute, but he wasn’t the type of guy I was typically drawn to,” Brenda said. She had moved from Mexico to the United States when she was just 12.
“I pictured myself with a dark-skinned, curly-haired, Spanish-speaking guy who loved salsa dancing — basically the opposite of him,” she said. “Isaiah was bald and he didn’t know how to dance.”
Brenda and Isaiah Stearns pose with their six children. Photo by the Stearns
The couple would talk for hours on the phone. Brenda told Today that she “quickly fell in love” with Isaiah.
“My mom volunteered to go spy on him. She was like, ‘What gym does he go to?’ ‘Where does he work?’ Brenda said.
But instead, she set up a lunch date with her mom and Isaiah. “Isaiah was all for it,” Brenda said.
After the meal, she asked her mom to rate Isaiah on a scale of 1 to 10. She gave him an ‘11’.
“She was like, ‘You’re going to marry this guy,’” Brenda said.
Right her mother was – the couple will celebrate their 13-year wedding anniversary in a few months.
They now 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 said.
