It all started in September of 2017, when the two adventurers separately embarked on a life-changing journey of teaching English abroad through Masa Israel Teaching Fellowship. Though Julia had planned to teach in Rahat and Haley planned to teach in Be'er Sheva, little did they know that their groups would be neighbors, living together in the same apartment building. Soon the two adventurers met and got to know each other.

After many months of late night talks, watching Broad City together, sharing book recommendations, and getting to know each other, Julia and Haley became close friends. In February, they began dating just in time to celebrate Valentine's day. After their first official date at Nalaga'at, blind restaurant, where they dined in the dark, they then traveled to Paris, Lisbon, and Madrid for Spring Break. Julia knew she was in love when they travelled so well together!

After the program ended, Julia moved to NYC for the year as part of the Avodah Service Corp, where she worked with refugee students to help them get into university, and Haley moved to Philadelphia for the Repair the World Fellowship to create service learnings and work with those experiencing homelessness. Though it was hard, they maintained a long-distance relationship across cities, spending many hours on the Megabus to visit each other every few weekends.

After a year of long-distance, they were excited to finally live together. The couple decided to move to North Carolina, where Julia is from, to try a new pace and apply to graduate schools.

Julia and Haley moved down to Raleigh, NC and lead a Moishe House Pod of community events. They hosted movie nights, murder mystery dinners, board game nights, Around the World Trivia, guest speaker series, and regularly attended every workout class (at one point outdoor with masks) at the YMCA. With the COVID-19 Pandemic, they delayed their graduate studies for a year and continued leading virtual Moishe House events and working virtually in addition to doing monthly drives up the coast to visit family and friends along the way.

As Pandemic restrictions loosened, they said goodbye to all their community in NC and moved back to NYC to complete their graduate studies. Haley started her Master's in Social Work at NYU and Julia started her Master's in International Affairs at Columbia University.

In the Summer of 2022, Haley and Julia were finally able to travel back to the region where it all started. They visited their old apartment in Be'er Sheva, they rode camels in Jordan, and visited family and friends they had not seen for many years.

After five amazing years together, Haley proposed to Julia via an elaborate escape room, themed like every year of their relationship, that ended on their apartment's roof overlooking Manhattan.

A couple weeks later, Julia did a private counter-proposal in Central Park