Divine intervention is real! Michaela was serving her mission in Chile when she unexpectedly got extremely sick and ultimately needed to return home for medical attention in the United States. After two months of being home, her health improved and she was cleared to return to the mission field. She had hoped she would be sent back to her original mission in Chile to finish the remaining six months of her missionary service, but she was instead sent to the California San Jose Mission and only had twelve days to prepare to go! It was in that first area that she and Noah met, but they only served together for a short period of time before Noah was transferred to a new area in the mission. During that time, they became friends, and Noah made a mental note that he wanted to write Michaela once she went home in April.

Once again, Michaela unexpectedly finished her mission earlier than anticipated due to being considered high-risk for the COVID-19 virus. Days after she returned home in March, Noah emailed her and they began talking and getting to know each other better. They emailed every week, and in May, Michaela wrote Noah a hand-written letter. They quickly fell in love over letters, and in August, Noah told Michaela he loved her. Their love and friendship continued developing, and they got to know each other better and better as they kept writing. Noah came home from his mission in November. Finally, after nine months of either emailing, writing letters, or calling, Noah and Michaela were able to see each other in person and go on their first date. Quickly, they knew that they wanted to get married and they started making plans for the future. They also enjoyed dating and spending as much time together as possible by going on drives, picnics, binge-watching White Collar, teasing, laughing, and cooking dinner together (living less than a block away from each other definitely helped, too!!). They planned a trip out to DC in March so that Noah could talk to Michaela's dad about marrying her, and then...

While Michaela and Noah were out visiting Michaela's family, they took a day trip up to New York City with Michaela's parents and sister. It was a cold and windy day, but they still had so much fun! They saw the Statue of Liberty, walked around the city, visited the 9/11 Memorial, ate yummy Thai food, went shopping, bought donuts, and then they finished the day by going up to see the view of the city at sunset from the top of the Rockefeller Center. While looking over the city at the Empire State Building, Noah popped the question with a gorgeous ring, and Michaela said yes!! It was the most romantic and magical day ever. A year ago when Michaela came home from her mission and we started writing, we would have never expected that we would be engaged to each other a year later!! But we are so happy and so grateful for all of the little (and big) miracles and blessings along the way that brought us together. Anything less than eternity with each other wouldn't be long enough!