We’re getting married!

We met in Nashville through a mutual friend on what was meant to be a casual night out, but it turned into something much more. From our first hello, the conversation flowed effortlessly. We spent hours talking, laughing, and wandering downtown, losing track of time. When the night finally ended, we said goodbye, thinking that was all it would be.

After we met, life did what life does best and threw in a deployment. Yuri deployed to the Middle East, and we fell into this rhythm of texting almost every day. One of us was usually the one shamelessly bugging the other while they were busy and on the opposite side of the world, but it worked for us. Eventually, messages slowed down, real life got loud, and we drifted out of touch for a while. When Yuri got back and settled into normal life again, she reached out, and that message basically changed everything. We planned our first official date in San Antonio, and she flew in all the way from Boston just to see where this could go. From there, we did true long distance for a while, squeezing in visits and making the most out of every weekend we could get together. Eventually, Yuri moved to Dallas to be closer while Adam was stationed at Fort Hood, a casual three-hour drive away. We spent almost two years like that, lots of adventures, countless weekends in Dallas, and a whole lot of miles on the car. It all led to the moment we finally landed in the same city when Adam received military orders for Austin, and this was a blessing. This meant we could start living the day-to-day, same-zip-code version of our story.

We took a trip to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, hoping to catch the changing leaves and spend time outdoors together. During a hike to Lake Isabelle, it started to rain, but by the time we reached the lake the sky cleared and the sun broke through, and it felt like a blessing from God and a sign that this moment was meant for us. Standing in front of the mountains and the water, we both had the quiet sense that this was exactly where we were supposed to be. That’s when Adam got down on one knee and asked Yuri to marry him, and that's where the next chapter of our story begins.