We met at a family-friendly gathering about 14 years ago in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Zaidi’s first thought was, “She’s way too beautiful to be from Klamath!” (He kept that thought to himself until many years later, ha-ha). Annie’s daughters were ages 1, 7, and 9 years old. Zaidi’s son was 5. It turned out we lived in the same neighborhood, our kids went to the same elementary school, and later the same Taekwondo program. We slowly became friends over the next few years and our families would get together for dinners and the kids would have playdates.

Eventually, Zaidi and his son moved to Eugene. We lost touch with each other for a while until one of Annie’s annual pilgrimages with her daughters to the Oregon Country Fair. We reconnected but something felt different this time. As Zaidi was flipping pancakes at Annie’s OCF campsite, he felt Annie’s hand rubbing his back appreciatively. He thought, “Whoa, she might like me!” She thought, “Hmm, he’s so cool and handsome.” We kept in touch and talked over the phone a couple times over the next few months. Then Zaidi asked Annie out for breakfast for her birthday in 2017 as she was coming through Eugene to visit a friend in Portland. It was at that moment that we both saw each other in a new way. After almost a decade of friendship, we realized we wanted to be more than friends.

We quickly fell in love with the comfort and security of our friendship as a foundation. We spent a year balancing our single-parenting lives with our long-distance relationship before Annie and her girls decided to move to Eugene.

Zaidi proposed to Annie in Mexico in 2021 in the jungle next to the crystal-clear water just upriver from Mismaloya Beach.

Guess what her answer was...