One day in April 2018, Esther got an email at work titled "Welcome - new hires" and in the body of the message said "please make sure to welcome the following individuals to our office: blah blah blah, blah blah blah, Christopher Shimazu". Immediately, Esther thought "Oh, finally! Thank God, another Asian person. That's a Japanese last name for sure.." The HR rep went around doing introductions with the new hires from cube to cube. Esther was drawn immediately to his confidence and his fast talking jersey accent.

In the next coming weeks, a friendship was built mostly in the breakroom making terrible k-cup coffees in the morning and learning more about each other. Finally a move was made when Esther asked Chris out for drinks at bartaco after work. The rest is history.

The following years we journeyed together making Virginia feel like home for Chris. We fell in love and later adopted a spunky goldendoodle puppy named Riley to join us on our adventures. On New Years Eve of 2020, Chris proposed before dinner at our first date spot, bartaco. #loveandtacos.

The way we see how our love story was orchestrated blows our minds. We are so blessed to have met each other and to have been given the opportunity to create the life that we have. We are so excited to see what God has in store for our family.