It’s happening!

Hi, Laura here :) Jace and I met July 4th, 2017. We both went on the World Race in 2015 to different countries and with different groups of people. I continued working with the World Race and was in Georgia for my 3rd training camp for my third trip when Jace came to help out. While in Georgia, Jace decided to also lead a group of gap year kids. At the end of training camp we both were committed to leading young people to 6 countries for 9 months and we wouldn’t spend any of that time together. Jace and I became good friends while we spent those first few weeks together. I always had an attraction to Jace, physically yes, but I loved his heart and especially the way he decided to lead gap year himself by asking those with wisdom around him—especially talking to his family back home about such a big decision. Jace and I started texting after returning home from training camp, which turned into phone calls, which turned into Facetime calls. After awhile we had a conversation about if we should continue this now or wait until after getting home (9 months later!). We agreed to use the rest of summer to get to know each other and see what would happen. I have never prayed so adamantly for the Lord to take away something if it wasn’t in His will for me. Which was a hard prayer because I really was starting to grow deep feelings for Jace. We prayed and decided to ask for the blessing of our mentors—to which our delight they thought it was a great idea if we started dating. We both headed to Atlanta early, at the end of summer, for Launch and had our first date in Downtown Atlanta. It was one of my favorite nights. A few days later Jace told me he loved me and kissed me for the first time. After the fastest 3 weeks we said goodbye for 9 months. Long distance between separate third world countries was hard. So much peace surrounded our relationship from the start and it didn’t stop even when we could only communicate once a week.

Hey Jace here, When we first got back from the world race I was nervous, I had only spent 3 weeks in person dating this woman, and what if she changed, or I had changed. I landed in Ontario, CA, went down the escalator, and my nervous heart was at peace when I saw her beautiful brown eyes. Laura and I spent the summer we got back from the World Race traveling the country, meeting each others family and friends, slowly bringing our worlds together. Not only did we fall more in love with each other, Laura also fell in love with the Gem State, and she moved up to Idaho at the end of the summer (mostly because of me though). Again peace overcame the nerves of having someone move for you, and our relationship continued to grow deep. It was the end of September 2018 that I realized Laura is the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. What a big moment, that corresponded with the realization that she had become my best friend. It’s now February 2019, Laura had planned a trip to Portland to see her best friend (her matron of honor). So I did a bit of planning myself coordinated some friends of mine to be incognito photographers, and set the time and place. We almost didn’t go, a huge snowstorm nearly derailed my plans. Laura was thinking we shouldn’t go, and I couldn’t be too pushy, otherwise she might think something was going to happened. I really wanted my  proposal to be a complete surprise. It was some of the craziest roads I’ve ever driven on, think of Ice Road Truckers. It was one of the most fun, magical drives of my life, and even before the proposal it was so wonderful. I wouldn’t say I was nervous to ask her, but I was nervous it was not going to be a surprise. We arrived at Multnomah Falls and trudged though the snow and hiked up to the bridge, It was less then 15 seconds before I got on my knee with great excitement and our whole relationship at the forefront of my mind. “Laura Acosta will you marry me?”