A woman who sent a text message to the wrong person fell in love with the recipient - and now they're married with six children. Brenda Stearns, 36, thought she was sending a message to her sister's friend in August 2009 but they had changed numbers - so she messaged a complete stranger instead.
Isaiah Stearns, 40, received the message - a passage from the Bible about putting others first - and replied saying '‘Amen to that, who is this?’", before striking up a conversation with Brenda. After resolving the initial confusion, the pair began talking every other day and met for the first time four months later in Cincinnati, Ohio - only after Brenda made Isaiah go on a date with her mum and sister first for their approval.
After her mum convinced Brenda Isaiah was an 11 out of 10 and she would "marry him some day", she met him in person too and the couple quickly hit if off. Brenda was working as an office assistant at the time, living in Augusta, Georgia while Isaiah was a stock assistant at a grocery store, living in Centreville, Ohio, nearly 600 miles away.
The pair quickly became a couple and Isaiah popped the question six months after they met. They tied the knot in June 2010 and went on to have six children - Victoria, 11, Veronica, 10, Samuel, nine, Vanessa, seven, Benjamin, four, and Ezra, one.
They will have been happily married for 13 years in June, and Brenda says she believes their relationship was "meant to be". Brenda, a stay-at-home mum from Dayton, Ohio, US, said: “I believe he was supposed to get my message and we were meant to be in this relationship.
"The way everything was orchestrated, I feel like it was an act of God. He was already praying for someone and that person happened to be very much like me. It was fate that brought us together.
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"If I had dreamed up a husband at the time, it might not have been him, but everything he is on the inside makes me a better person. I am so glad that he was chosen for me." Isaiah said: "I was actively pursuing a relationship but I couldn't find the right person. After I received Brenda's message, I read the Bible verse, and I struck up a conversation.
"As we continued to talk, within two or three weeks, I realised I liked her and wanted to get to know her better. There's no way this could have happened by chance.
"When I first saw Brenda in person, she was so beautiful, she had a really nice smile, and I thought, she's even better than I imagined." In 2009, Brenda attempted to send a verse from the Bible to a friend of her sister, Roxana, 32, but accidentally texted the wrong number.
She said: “I was trying to send a scripture of the bible to a friend. Then 20 to 30 minutes later, I got a reply saying, ‘Amen to that, who is this?’ I explained 'it’s Brenda, Roxy’s sister' and the guy said, 'I don’t think we’ve ever met, my name’s Isaiah Stearns'.
“I apologised and said I was trying to text somebody else. He said, 'no, that’s fine, by the look of your text, you're a big Christian.'” From there, the pair exchanged messages and Isaiah called Brenda the following day.
Brenda said: “At first I wasn’t really comfortable because I’d never met him. I didn’t answer on purpose.
"But in the back of my mind I was hoping he would leave a voicemail so I could hear his voice - he sounded genuine and authentic, so I called him back.” Brenda - who lived in Augusta, Georgia, at the time - found out that Isaiah worked at a grocery store and lived just an hour away from her mother, Rossy, 60, and sister in Ohio.
But that wasn’t the only strange coincidence - due to a problem with his mobile network provider, Isaiah had actually changed phone numbers the same day Brenda first messaged him. “He’d been given a new number and got my message 30 minutes later - no one else knew he had that number at the time,” she said.
Even more bizarrely, Brenda had actually planned to text her sister’s friend earlier in the day, but when something came up with work, she forgot to hit send. “If I had sent the text in the morning, he would never have got my message,” she said.
After the pair exchanged photos, Brenda admitted she "thought he was very handsome” and they began speaking regularly. "He would call me every other day," she said. "We started getting to know each other and I started having feelings for him."
However, Brenda still wasn't entirely sure she could trust Isaiah. “In the back of my mind, I was hesitant because I hadn’t met him face to face,” she said.
“I felt like he could be lying to me, he could be a creep, so I was slightly apprehensive.” Eager for advice, Brenda confided in her mum about her situation, and she suggested that she meet Isaiah on her daughter's behalf.
“My mum and younger sister ended up going on a date with Isaiah in my place," Brenda said. "I was feeling kind of nervous about the situation - it was all so abnormal.”
During the date, Brenda waited at home, eager to hear her mum and sister’s feedback. “The whole evening I’m waiting for my mum to call,” she said. “When she did I asked her to rate Isaiah from one to 10.
"My mum took a pause and said: ‘11 - you’re going to marry this guy.’ The fact she said that made me think, maybe this was meant to be. He must really be awesome because when it comes to guys dating her girls, my mum is very picky.
“That’s when I let my guard down.” The couple then set out plans to meet for the first time in December 2009.
Brenda said: “My family were going to Minnesota for Christmas, and my mum suggested I invite Isaiah. I was getting ready to go, then the day before my vacation, my boss said he’d need me to stay in the office.
“I made the tough choice to quit my job that day. I thought, ‘the decision I make in this moment is going to impact the rest of my life.’” After moving back in with her mum near Cincinnati, Ohio, in late November 2009, Brenda arranged to meet up with Isaiah for a walk a few days later.
“I remember seeing him for the first time and my first thought was, he’s tall. I felt he was sweet and very handsome. We decided that day that we wanted to be boyfriend and girlfriend, but I told him to wait on the kissing for a little bit.”
Brenda and Isaiah’s relationship progressed rapidly, and on Valentine’s Day 2010, he proposed to her. “He made a really nice Valentine’s dinner and baked a heart-shaped chocolate cake,” she said.
“When I cut into the cake, I felt the knife knock against something - the ring was hidden inside. Then he went down on one knee and proposed to me.
“I knew I was in love with him, and in my heart, I already knew I wanted to be with him. I was very excited, and obviously, I said yes.” The couple got married in June 2010 and now have six children together.
“I’ve always wanted to be a mum - I love kids so much," Brenda said. "We started trying right away, and two months later, I found out I was pregnant.” Victoria, 11, was born in April 2011, followed by Veronica, 10, Samuel, nine, Vanessa, seven, Benjamin, four, and Ezra, one.
“We talk about how we met with our kids all the time," Brenda said. They think it's so lovely and amazing and want to know all the details - Victoria hopes it will happen to her.
“There is no right or wrong way to meet your partner. It’s so beautiful and amazing the way love can appear where you least expect it.”
