Jacob: I met Lydia during our senior year of high school. We both sang in choir (I was living in Germany, she was living in Russia) and we were privileged to both attend an Honors Choir conference in Prague. I remember being drawn to her immediately, and we spent every possible second together that weekend. I definitely had a huge crush on Lydia from the beginning but I figured I had no shot at actually making something work. ・・・・・・・・・・・・ Lydia: I don't know how exactly we first started talking but I remember noticing Jacob quickly. We learned that we had quite a bit in common, including our families being connected to the same (very small) mission organization! It was a very classic crush. I thought Jacob was very cute, funny, and I absolutely said I was cold just so he would give me his jacket to wear. In the weeks following, we texted and would call for hours, but we slowly drifted as we went our separate ways for college.

Lydia: I ended up at Wheaton College near Chicago and Jacob went to Belmont University in Nashville. About a year after we started school, Jacob texted me out of the blue and we reconnected! On Thanksgiving, Jacob took a bus from Nashville to Chicago and we spent our Thanksgiving break exploring the city and developing feelings. We even did the classic "slowly start to hold hands" while watching an episode of Parks & Rec! We started dating one month later.

Jacob: Lydia and I spent all of 2019 dating long distance. I took my fair share of 10-hour bus rides up to Chicago, sacrificing my sleep to visit her for a few weekends between classes. She also got to visit me in Nashville a few times. This stage of our relationship was really hard because we both had 2+ years of school remaining and didn't really have an end in sight for the long distance aspect. I loved spending time with Lydia but the distance was very difficult for me.

Lydia: Jacob managed to get a visa and traveled to spend a week in Russia with me & my family. This was an incredibly special time as I had never gotten to share my home or my city with anyone from my new life in America, much less with someone I was dating. To this day, he is the only one of my friends or people I have dated who has traveled to St. Petersburg with me.

Jacob: I broke up with Lydia almost exactly a year after we started dating. I came up with a couple reasons for it at the time, but looking back on it I think what really happened is I started to get overwhelmed at how difficult the distance was. I walled myself off and eventually ended things in an effort to protect myself. I hurt Lydia a lot, in ways I didn't realize for multiple years.

Jacob: In the years following our breakup, Lydia and I did not communicate. The one time I tried to reach out, she made it clear that she basically never wanted to hear from me again. You can imagine her surprise (and frustration) when I reached out again another year or two later! I was working at a concert in Chicago and decided to text Lydia to see if she was interested in catching up on the last few years. She was very much NOT interested! But I eventually convinced her that I wanted to apologize for how I left things and she agreed to see me. I spent almost an hour apologizing and taking ownership of what happened and then eventually, after getting through all that, I made an attempt to start up a more casual conversation by asking what her family had been up to lately. We ended up spending multiple hours catching up and it felt like we picked right back up right where we left off, even after almost 4 years. We both changed a lot in the interim but we still felt like those naive choir kids who wanted nothing more than to spend every possible second together. I saw her the next day as well before I headed back to Nashville.

Lydia: Even on the first night when we met back up in November I felt our connection, as electric as it had felt when we were in high school. I couldn't help but not-so-subtly suggest we see each other for a second time before he left for Nashville. When he left, we texted almost constantly for a couple days before he called to ask about giving our relationship another shot. Despite feeling more than a little nervous given our history, I was sincerely impressed and flattered at how diligently Jacob worked to show his commitment to me. I even sent him to my father for some external, slightly more objective, assessment of where Jacob was at. With every little thing I asked of Jacob, he put in the work to rebuild what we had before into an even better relationship. About a month after we reconnected, Jacob visited me again and we officially started dating. I was so excited for the future and couldn't believe how deliriously happy I felt.

Jacob: This second time around, we knew we better be sure about what we were getting ourselves into. The distance was still tough but this time I had airline miles and a flexible job schedule that gave me the opportunity to spend a lot more time with Lydia. But I knew that we had to be moving towards "forever" or it wasn't worth the risk of hurting both of us all over again. Lydia was finishing up nursing school so most of the travel fell on me, but I was more than happy to take the trip out to Chicago any chance I got. We both knew one of us would eventually need to move closer to the other and it ended up being Lydia who would make that sacrifice.

Lydia: Voluntarily leaving a city that I had grown to love and call my own might be one of the hardest choices I have had to make in my life so far. However, I understood that of our respective careers, mine was the most "portable" and it made the most sense for me to make the move. If someone had told me even 7 months prior that I would be moving to Nashville, of all places, I would never have believed them. But knowing I was starting a new chapter with the love of my life made it worth it to me. Jacob and my mother flew to Chicago to help me pack my messy apartment up and when we finished we loaded my stuff in a U-Haul, Jacob put Mochi (my cat) on his lap, and he drove it all down to Nashville while I returned to Russia for a month. When I flew back, Jacob had already secured an apartment about 20 minutes from his place and had also developed an unbreakable bond with Mochi.

Lydia: Despite knowing "The Question" was coming soon, I was still very surprised when it happened! Jacob used an incredibly plausible excuse (dinner with a friend at a nice restaurant) to get me to dress nicely and he casually mentioned he'd love to go on a short walk before dinner since the neighborhood was nice. As we were walking, Jacob pointed out a penny on the ground. I always pick up pennies I find, so I didn't think much of it and almost put it away in my bag! Jacob's "Wait, what year is the penny?" got me to flip the coin over and see the engraved question: "Will you marry me?" When I looked up, he was on his knee and I was still processing what was even happening. After I said yes, I turned and saw a group of my closest friends from all over the country emerge from across the park. Jacob put together the most perfect engagement. He knew exactly how to tailor it to who I am and exactly how to make sure I felt loved and celebrated. ・・・・・・・・・・・・ Jacob: I spent over a month planning the proposal, from the surprise visit of all her friends to the exact route we would walk to "find" the engraved penny that I had staged. There were a few moments where I was worried Lydia might catch on, but luckily everything went perfectly! Getting to spend a couple days celebrating with her friends was a lot of fun for me. I'm so thankful for everyone who contributed to make the proposal weekend special and we can't wait to celebrate our union with everyone soon!