Our Beginning Unbeknownst to us, making the move to St. Louis ultimately served a deeper purpose than simply for work. Amanda as a pediatric, cardiac ICU nurse and Andrew as a 3rd year resident with a desire to specialize in adult cardiology. Despite living 3 minutes down the road from each other, and working in the same hospital system, it took us years to finally cross paths, separated by the pandemic. We only learned of our close proximity to each other after parting ways from our first date, when Amanda appeared to be stalking Andrew, following him on nearly the same route home. Luckily, he wasn’t scared off , and we both felt that we were looking at a long future together. As we continued getting to know each other, we bonded over our travels, our goals for the future, our work stories, and our experiences growing up as first generation Americans, coming from diverse cultural backgrounds, from Egypt, to Brazil and Taiwan. We bonded over good food, which grew to become our favorite type of date night (Amanda finally got to learn what real sushi and Chinese food is). Our lives together felt so natural, that after just a few short weeks, it felt like we had already known each other for years.

National parks were places that Andrew and his family frequently visited. In June 2021, Andrew and Amanda went on their first park trip to Acadia National Park, where Amanda immediately loved the views, wanting to capture every sunrise and sunset on camera. This led to many more adventures throughout the US, conquering many trails and eventually these trails led out to the rest of the world, where we have loved visiting new countries and experiencing various cultures and of course, FOOD! When we visited Banff National Park one October, we immediately loved this destination, especially during autumn, and wanted to gather our closest friends and family here for our upcoming wedding!

After over 2 years of dating, the pressure was on for Andrew to propose. Knowing Amanda’s love of sentimental gestures, Andrew tapped into his inner poet and composed a poem detailing how our love grew during a trip to Yosemite. A plan was put into motion to propose at sunrise at Dead Horse State Park, where Amanda would stumble onto a poster with the printed poem where a hired photographer would be hiding in wait to capture the moment. Unfortunately, a roadside incident in Moab blocked the photographer from making it to the rendezvous for the moment and so Andrew had to scramble. Now the proposal happened at sunset, which ended up to be more spectacular (though this time with an audience, to Andrew’s chagrin). Despite the last minute change of plans, Andrew remained calm and gave away no indication that he had something planned for that day of hiking amidst beautiful canyons. When we got to our last hiking destination, Amanda was ready to capture some sunset photos with her camera, but instead found the poem and Andrew down on his knee with a ring box in his hands. Tears grew to excitement and then…well, you’ll find out the rest soon!

We found many additional adventures in building a home together after moving to Houston, learning to love and support each other in different ways and needs, exploring a new city, and meeting so many wonderful people. Andrew will be finishing up his cardiology fellowship soon and Amanda will graduate from her nurse practitioner’s program in the next few months, making their plans wide open for their future together after the wedding!