Married Couple, Together Nearly a Decade, Discover They Went to Preschool Together in Class Photo (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Natalie and Colin on their wedding day (left), in preschool.Photo:Natalie DeLaere

Natalie DeLaere

Natalie DeLaere couldn’t have imagined what she’d discover when her mother-in-law paid a visit with some of her husband’s childhood mementos in tow.

Natalie and Colin have been married since 2020 and together for nearly a decade. While both grew up in Fresno, Calif., the pair didn’t cross paths until college — or so they thought.

“We went to different schools K-12. I would consider them ‘rival’ high schools. We both committed to play sports at a college in Southern California and made our way down there after graduating high school, about 300 miles away from home,” Natalie tells PEOPLE.

“Our college was fairly small and we ended up meeting and clicking right away. After chatting, we discovered our parents back in Fresno lived less than three miles away from each other and had several mutual friends, such a small world!”

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Colin and Natalie on their wedding day.Natalie DeLaere

Recently, Colin’s mom visited the couple with some items of his she found in their attic as the family prepared to move out of their home.

“My mother-in-law flew with a bag to Arizona, where we now live, full of my husband’s childhood belongings … awards, photos, etc. I was going through the bag, and that’s when I noticed his preschool picture.”

“It was honestly surreal and hilarious! We cannot believe it took us four years into marriage to discover this,” she says. “We thought this whole time we first met when we were 18 years old, but we were actually little kids! My husband was actually not even 4 yet, since he was young for his grade.”

“Our families kept talking about how weird it was that not only did we attend preschool together, it was especially weird that we were standing right next to each other in the class photo!”

The couple, who are Christian, “totally believe the Lord let us discover this photo a few years into marriage for a good laugh and story to tell.”

“We ended up falling in love with each other so quickly and started dreaming up our future together. Our life together now is better than I could’ve ever dreamed up, and it’s crazy it took going away for college to meet the love of my life … who just so happened to live down the street,” Natalie says. “Let alone find out we went to preschool together. It makes our story even more special than it already was, and makes you think soulmates are always connected.”

Natalie and Colin’s class photo.Natalie DeLaere

Natalie and her husband enjoyed the special discovery quietly for a while. A few months later, she shared it on TikTok to show her friends.

“I posted with the intentions of my friends seeing and being mind blown like we were. It ended up blowing up more than anticipated,” she says.

Natalie admits “there areverysplit reactions” to their story. “Some people think it’s a sweet story and small world connection. Others, however, think I’m lying and say, ‘There’s no way you two don’t remember each other,’ or ‘How was this not discussed while dating?’ "

After talking about it, the couple realized their earliest memories date back to kindergarten, and the time before just never came up.

source: people.com