Chrystina Moritz Crown and Nathanael Robert Thompson met on the dating app Hinge in December of this year, and soon after, she asked him to accompany her and three of her friends on a road trip from Colorado to California, which included a stop at the Grand Canyon.
Christina is “very fun and impulsive, just incredibly light,” said Mr. Thompson, 28, who added that if you spend any time with her, there is always “a lot of woohooing!” when you are around her.
The fact that Mr. Thompson was ready to travel for more than a week in a cramped vehicle with individuals he didn’t know — and to put up with those people playing their favourite songs on repeat — were encouraging signals, according to Ms. Crown. Furthermore, Mr. Thompson, who is 6-foot-2, did not appear troubled by the lack of legroom in his vehicle.
Despite the fact that they both attended the University of Colorado Boulder, they never met when they were students. Miss Crown, who grew up in Colorado Springs, Colo., earned her bachelor’s degree in 2014, while Mr. Thompson, also known as Nathan, earned his bachelor’s degree a year later. Highlands Ranch, Colo., is his hometown, which is a suburb of Denver.
Ms. Crown, who taught elementary school for seven years after graduating from college, shared her desire to become a foster parent with Mr. Thompson while on the road trip. He did not get out of the vehicle, which caught her by surprise.
“Listening to the tales and learning about some of the atrocities these children have through has galvanised me,” he said.
In March 2020, they will be moving into a spacious home in Fort Collins with their children. The two were on a trail run to Upper Mohawk Lake in Breckenridge, Colo., when Mr. Thompson proposed on July 5, 2020. The couple had been dating for many months at that point.
They welcomed their first foster children, three siblings, into their home in September of that year. As Ms. Crown explains, “we’ve had babies essentially on a constant basis since then.” Ms. Crown is currently pursuing a master’s degree in addiction recovery counselling at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.
Once, at Ms. Crown’s birthday party at a restaurant, a phone came in from a foster care agency asking if they could take in two infants who had medical issues. According to Ms. Crown, the men called and stated, “We’re on our way to your home, we’ll be there in 20 minutes.” “We didn’t even get around to blowing out the candles.”
He prepares everything since he works from home as a senior software engineer for CapTech Consulting, a technology consulting firm in Denver. “Nathan never gets agitated,” said Ms. Crown.
Ms. Crown plans the family’s weekend excursions, which are frequently ambitious, such as hauling two children on cross-country skis for 11 miles to a wilderness cabin in the Adirondack Mountains.
They had four weddings scheduled in the previous year, but they were all postponed due to the epidemic. Recent events include the cancellation of a wedding ceremony scheduled for Jan. 8 in Crested Butte, Colo., only a few days before because the couple and three children living with them tested positive for Covid a few days before the ceremony. Ms. Crown said that, despite the fact that no one had symptoms, “we ended up outside Urgent Care messaging our guests: ‘No wedding,” she said.
The couple tied the knot on March 26 at the Depot, a historic railroad station in Crested Butte, Colorado, in a self-solemnizing ceremony that featured vows written by the couple themselves and a reading from their favourite book. Following that, they and their 50 guests, the majority of whom had received vaccinations, gathered at the Scarp Ridge Lodge, a former bar in the area, to toast their accomplishment.
In the previous week, they had been responsible for five youngsters. According to Ms. Crown, their ages are as follows: “2, 5, 9, 14, and 17.” They were taken to the wedding by their three elder siblings. According to Ms. Crown in an email, “We adore witnessing these tiny folks establish huge ambitions and large objectives for themselves while sitting at our dinner table.” “We do not take for granted the pleasure of all of this.”
