Even though my sister, Elena, and his brother, Matthew, have been married for nearly ten years, our story didn’t truly begin until much later. They had planned to visit him in Japan, where he was stationed, but due to work circumstances, the trip fell through. I thought my dream of visiting Japan would have to wait too — until my sister, Alisa, surprised me with a last minute plane ticket. With only two weeks’ notice, Cody arranged time off, and suddenly the trip I thought wasn’t happening at all was back on. From the moment we met up, something felt different. We explored Japan, talked for hours, and shared more laughs than we could count. When I flew home, neither of us could shake the feeling that something meaningful had begun. We kept talking every single day — texting, calling, and finding any excuse to stay connected. It didn’t take long before the “What if…?” turned into “When can we see each other again?” So I booked another trip back to Japan. The second visit made everything even clearer: what we had wasn’t just a spark, it was something steady, easy, and deeply right for both of us. We could both feel God stitching our stories together and every moment made us more sure that this wasn’t just long-distance excitement, this was the real thing. A few months later, he asked me to marry him...and I said yes! A spontaneous trip turned into the beginning of our forever. "Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate." - Matthew 19:6