‘What home was supposed to feel like’: An unconventional beginning makes a happy ending for U-High grads now married

Savannah and Tupu Jr. Failauga knew of each other while they attended University High School together more than a decade ago. Now, the two are married with three kids: 8-year-old Khaleo, 5-year-old Khiari and Khaliope, born on Jan. 23.

The pair, admittedly, had an unconventional beginning.

When they first started seeing each other, the two agreed to keep the relationship casual. A few weeks later, Tupu told Savannah he loved her. Then something life-changing happened.

“We got pregnant with our son three weeks into dating each other,” Savannah said. “It was a huge surprise.”

The whole thing should have fallen apart, but the two made a pact the day Savannah found out she was pregnant, Tupu said. They promised each other to be the best parents they could be – together. That pact, Tupu said during this Valentine’s Day season, hasn’t been broken.

Tupu, who is now 31, provides for their family working as a foreman for Northwest Fence.

“I remember when we first met and we first started hanging out, he had given me a hug, and I knew from that moment on that’s what home was supposed to feel like. And I wanted to spend the rest of my life feeling like that,” Savannah said. “And ever since then, he has provided that for me, the sense of home, the stability. He’s been always on my side, even when I’m wrong, like he just makes me feel safe in a world that has proven to me to not be safe.”

The feeling was mutual.

“She is my calm,” Tupu said.

When they first started dating, Tupu told Savannah he wasn’t ready for something serious, but he needed to be close to her.

“I knew every bit of my soul that I was willing to put in that effort, you know what I mean, but to watch over now almost nine years of that, that same effort being matched, that same energy being matched …,” Tupu said.

When Khaleo turned 1, Tupu said he knew Savannah was his forever.

“She’s been the most amazing thing I’ve ever had in my life, and I will continue to try and become a better version of myself for her,” Tupu said.

Savannah’s parents divorced when she was 10. From that point on, she said, she was alone a lot. She moved out when she was 16.

“We both came from very similar family structures, and dynamics, in my head, play a lot into how things will go in your relationship. She understands me,” Tupu said.

The two connected shortly after Savannah, 28, graduated high school. After Tupu commented on a post to one of Savannah’s social media accounts, she messaged him privately. Their relationship took off.

Tupu proposed to Savannah on Aug. 2, 2022, at the end of a pathway sprinkled with rose petals and lined with candles and photos of the couple together.

“I sobbed,” Savannah said, smiling at the memory.

The rings the two exchanged on their wedding day were custom made, Savannah said.

“It’s stunning. He nailed it. It’s an emerald, and then my band has diamonds on it,” Savannah said of her husband’s design.

People would make jokes about the two and their unconventional timeline, but Savannah said they both knew they were meant to be together.

“I felt very secure. I felt like I didn’t have to have a ring in order to feel like this was forever,” Savannah said.

“We already made sure I knew that and felt that. And again, we’re both coming from not very wealthy families, so I also understood that, like, that’s something that could take a while to happen. And he would always tell me, like, I don’t want to propose to you unless I’m able to get you a ring that I feel like you truly deserve, and I don’t think that, like, a cheap ring is something you deserve. So he waited and he saved and he got me my ring.”

They got married on May 21, 2025.

The family lives in a town home in Spokane Valley and has lived in the city for five years. This is the longest the pair have stayed in one spot.

Even nine years later, Savannah said, they are learning new things about each other.

“We just wake up every day and choose each other regardless of what our ego is telling us or what society seems as normal,” Savannah said. “And I think we just felt lucky in finding the person that will also choose us back.”