Home is wherever I'm with you

Plenty of clichés fit our love story. But how we met was anything but cliché, and it’s something neither of us could have predicted, even in our wildest imagination. It started with a few life altering changes - the kind that make you question everything you've ever done in life - that propelled me to put a hiatus on life, book a one way flight to South America, and embark on an Eat-Pray Love-like journey. After months of solo travel, I began to see and experience the world differently. This time of solitude - the long conversations with God, the complete reliance on myself in a foreign land, the challenges and victories, the new friends along the way who taught me their refreshing ways of life - transformed me. I was so filled with inner peace and wisdom that for the first time, I felt God was calling me away from the vocation of marriage, towards a single life where I could give myself to the world in a different way. I felt more self-realized in this period of independence than in any previous relationship. The strong need to spend my life with someone else - something I fantasized about since I was a young girl - was suddenly absent. I opened my heart to other life paths. A week after surrendering to God my life-long dream of marriage, I met Felix on the hike up to Machu Picchu. I stepped onto the bus to see only one open seat, next to a tall German man...his name was Dorian. He briefly introduced me to his friend sitting front of him, Felix. Felix and I exchanged a polite hello (I didn't even see this mysterious man's face). I spent the next 5 days with a group of adventurous strangers. Days were filled with rigorous hikes, extraordinary views, and experiences of Incan culture. Nights were filled with camping in the mountains and bonding with no internet. It was one of the best weeks of my life. But I said about 3 words to this mysterious Felix the entire time. After the Machu Picchu hike, Dorian invited me to dinner. When I arrived, there was an empty seat beside Felix - the perfect setup (unknown to me). Felix and I talked one on one for the first time. We salsa danced through the evening (and lost Dorian along the way). The next day, Felix took me on a proper date at a rooftop restaurant in Cusco, where I learned of our shared love of music, adventure, ambition, and travel. He impressed me by identifying the song “Lost On You” by LP, a song we both happened to love. The next day, we exchanged a teary, romantic goodbye. I remember crying for 2 minutes after he left...when suddenly he burst through the door again and said "One more kiss!" I thought that would be the last one. I have never been so happy to be wrong. In the days that followed, Felix courted me like a smitten gentleman in regency era London (think Bridgerton). He told me how special our time was together and how he couldn’t stop thinking about me. He scheduled video chats so I wouldn’t forget him. One day, he told me to watch Dorian’s WhatsApp story: there he was, sitting at my family’s favorite restaurant in Toronto, singing a romantic song accompanied by a Chinese man. The caption read, “This song goes out to Amanda from Chicago! <3” After I saw it, Felix told me he had to see me again, and he would do whatever it takes to make it happen. He invited me to meet him in Germany to see his hometown, Leipzig, during my upcoming trip to Europe (where I planned to decide to which European city to move, something I had wanted for years). He offered to show me around Germany and another European city of my choice. I thought, “Tour around Europe from a cute German gentleman who likes to listen to me talk. Yes!” My heart was open to whatever may come. Little did I know that I was about to fall irrevocably in love with a man I just met on a mountain in Peru. By the time Felix and I finished 9 days of travel together, ending in Prague (where he later asked me to marry him!), I knew he was the one. And I knew my life would never be the same.

Dorian and I planned a 3 week jungle and motorbike adventure in Peru, starting with Machu Picchu. When Amanda went on the bus on the first day of the Machu Picchu trek, I thought, "Shoot! There's a beautiful girl who needs a seat. Why does Dorian have to have the empty seat next to him?! Why can't I?" Little did I know, Dorian would be the matchmaker who would actually bring me to Amanda. I hung out with Amanda in groups that week. The main thing I remember is that she kept killing me during group games we played every night (there was no internet or phone service). She told me she thought I had a guilty looking face! After Machu Picchu, we went on our first date and had a couple of wonderful days in Cusco. I was intrigued by her passion for music and cool American attitude. Our sudden separation before my motorbike excursion into the Peruvian jungle only made me want to be with her even more. I made sure not to lose touch with her after we left Peru. Dorian was my true wingman. He always encouraged me to chase Amanda's heart, even across the ocean. When Amanda said yes to traveling together, my colleagues at the hospital worked hard to rearrange our shifts so that I could see her in Europe again. And when her parents requested to meet this mysterious German man before her move to Germany, I did not question it for a second. I immediately booked a flight to Chicago to meet her parents. I played my doctor card when I met them, and it worked like a charm ;) We officially began our relationship in Prague in 2018, and I turned it into forever by asking her to marry me there 4 years later (see picture below).