Leah & Daniel
Leah & Daniel
Our Story
How We Met
In April 2022, Daniel and Leah both signed up separately for a Shabbat cluster dinner group through the DC JCC. Daniel chose to sit right next to Leah when he arrived. Before they knew it, a bottle of wine meant for the table is shared just between them.
As the Shabbat dinner wound down, Daniel made it clear that he was interested in going on a date and they met up at Bar Deco in Penn Quarter the next night.
As they were asking each other questions like "Who did you vote for in 2020?", and sipping their drinks, Daniel's friends crashed the date at Bar Deco. What could have been an awkward situation turned into a night filled with laughs and a deeper understanding of each other.
Long-distance
Daniel took on a voluntary deployment to Iraq, starting in mid-December 2022 and lasting for six months. On their very first date, he opened up to Leah about this, knowing that it might give pause to a new relationship. Leah, although initially uncertain, found herself drawn to Daniel, and her feelings for him outweighed any reservations she had about the upcoming deployment.
Leah and Daniel facetimed every day after Daniel finished work, which made the separation a little easier.
Engagement
Daniel proposed on the beach in Lisbon, Portugal after a beautiful day of traveling through Sintra and the south of Portugal. Daniel asked an older couple on the tour to take some photos of them, as they had been doing for the older couple throughout the day-long tour. He surprised Leah and the older couple by getting down on one knee and proposing while the pictures were being taken. He then insisted that they got ice cream to celebrate!
Move-In
In mid-August, Daniel's roommate of 5 years and best man, John, moved out and Leah moved in to Daniel's apartment in McLean, Virginia. Leah's parents contributed most of the furniture that had been in the family home for years. They are collecting Judaica from around the world to display in their home and are not doing so well with trying to keep their plants alive.
Lucy
We added Lucy to our new family in late August! She's a very playful puppy who also loves to cuddle and look out the living room window.
