Couple preparing to adopt looked back at their childhood photos — when a 23-year-old costume proved they were ‘meant to be’ decades before they met
When the smallest childhood memories resurface years later, they often reveal connections that feel almost impossible to explain. In 2024, Jasmin Sanders and Lauren Retica were preparing to welcome their first child when they revisited old photo albums and memories from their early years. It began as a nostalgic walk down memory lane, but soon turned into a moment that left them stunned. While flipping through Retica’s childhood modeling photos, one image immediately stood out to Sanders: a picture of Retica at age four, posing in a pink fairy costume. As reported by PEOPLE on February 1, 2026, Retica, 30, said, “When we turned onto the photo of me in the fairy costume, Jasmin immediately recognized it, and audibly gasped, saying, 'I had this costume.'”
It turned out that Sanders had worn the exact same pink fairy costume when she was just three years old, never imagining that the child modelling it in a 1999 ad would one day become her wife. The coincidence became even more surreal when the couple showed the image to Sanders’ mother, who recalled searching everywhere for that very costume after seeing Retica featured in the advertisement. Retica shared, “We were so shocked and a bit emotional. It's such an exciting thing to discover and feels like a special level of connection we didn't know we had.”
Retica further explained that her mother often described her as a “tomboy” who disliked dresses, making the photo shoot itself unexpected. “Much to my mother's surprise, I apparently hopped straight into the dress with no fuss, something I had never done before,” she said.
These kinds of moments have led the couple to believe in the “invisible string” theory, which suggests that people are connected by fate long before they ever meet. Nearly 17 years after both girls wore the same fairy costume, Sanders and Retica crossed paths on Tinder. From there, they say they were “inseparable.” The pink dress and fairy wings were eventually replaced by white gowns when the couple married in 2023. “I think it's a really special thing to think about having a connection with someone, who you will later in life meet and fall in love with,” Sanders, 29, told the outlet.
Retica reflected, “I think I was always meant to meet Jasmin at some point in our lives, and our story tells me the universe was linking us together long before we met.” Retica, who is a parent to an 18-month-old daughter with Sanders, said that the discovery has taken on even deeper meaning. She feels every decision she made eventually guided her to her partner and their child, exactly where she was meant to be. Retica shared that she wishes the same kind of destiny for her daughter, and said, “My greatest hope for our daughter is that she will be afforded the same blessing of fate, love, and timing in her life, and that I can one day watch the joy it brings to her life, the way it has mine.”