From Emily’s perspective:

In a whirlwind of events, I was deployed to Poland. In the first week I was there, I met so many people and was excited about all the friends I was making. The first time I met Aaron, we were on a 4 wheeler ride with some friends. Afterwards, we stood at the campfire making small talk. We were making a lot of connections and had a lot of similar interests and I could tell he liked me, but at the time, I wasn’t quite interested in a relationship. We became great friends and were together with Eddie and George after work almost every evening. Poland was a fun time of getting to know each other, watching movies and exploring northern Poland. Aaron went back to Germany after a few months, but he’d come back to Poland to visit me periodically. After I moved back to the US, we kept in touch and Aaron remained one of my best friends. For about 2 years, we talked long distance, but I still wasn’t ready to date him.

Then, he got stationed at Fort Carson and we were able to hang out in person again. I had just moved into my new house and he was so helpful with all of my house projects, and was someone who was always there for me through the good and the bad. We had about 4 months together before Aaron deployed to Bulgaria. Soon after he left, I realized that I didn’t want to keep being “just friends”. And after asking my dad, Aaron called me from Bulgaria and asked me to be his girlfriend. I ecstatically said yes, and we dated long distance most of the time. We would have Sunday dates during my morning and his evening where we would talk, ask deep questions, watch shows, and read books together. It was not an easy time, but was fun to get to know each other on a deeper level and was so exciting to be dating my best friend. Finally he came home, and with the encouragement of some friends, finally proposed! I excitedly said, "YES!"

Registry