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Thursday, January 16, 2014

Our Story

Sven and I met online. He had just moved to Vancouver from Germany and started an online account to meet friends and I had just fallen down an escalator and had spent way too much time in a hospital alone so I too started an online account to pass the time in the hospital, not thinking I would ever meet someone off of the internet.

When we first started talking I was still in the hospital and we had planned to meet when I was able to walk again and wasn't stuck in a wheelchair. The day that my cast came off of my leg, we met at a Canucks game downtown Vancouver -yes, I was still limping and wasn't able to wear heals yet so I thought this was only going to end up being a friendship, not the love of my life.

We spent the whole hockey game chatting and getting to know each other and afterwards went for dinner. We both knew after that night that something was special between us. When I got home I realized I still had his jersey and gloves in my purse, I swear, I didn't do this intentionally!

After a few weeks of random texts and failed plans to get together to give him his stuff back, I set up a casual night with some friends to get together at my place. When he arrived he brought a bottle of wine from Germany that had the same label as my name. Keeping in mind this was the second date, I was thoroughly impressed. We continued dating and as Christmas approached we were struck with a dilemma. His family was coming to Vancouver for Christmas and shortly thereafter he had to go back to Germany.

After only knowing each other for a month when his family came, we decided to play it by ear. If I got along well with his family we would see what the next step was and if it was a disaster, well, we knew what was coming.

Having his family stay with us was a complete delight. I got to know Sven on a whole other level and it really amazed me how sweet and sincere his family was. We celebrated Christmas in Canada together with a German twist. After New Years Eve Sven and I decided that we couldn't spend the rest of our lives not knowing what could have been between us. That it would be unbearable for us to say goodbye after the short month we got to know each other. Our solution was for me to move back to Germany with him.

We broke the news to our families and it came with mixed emotions. Not everyone believed that we were doing the right thing but we truly felt inseparable. I quickly managed to sell and get rid of all of my belongings in one month and on February 5th I moved to Germany with the love of my life. We both thought our love was unstoppable.

After some weeks in Germany our 'honeymoon phase' was over and reality set in, bills, grocery shopping, annoying habits and just plain life got in the way. This difficult time really made us question our decision and worst of all, each other. We had many long discussions about whether or not we had really thought about what we were doing before we moved here. However, through it all we both felt something was keeping us together and knew that we shouldn't and couldn't give up on us. After about a year our relationship turned and we really remembered the reasons why we loved each other. We leaned on each other when we were stressed, we became each others biggest supporters and motivators and really devoted time and patience to our relationship rather than giving the best of us to others. Our rough patch really made us appreciate our love for one another and now, without a doubt, we know that we are in it for the long haul, there's no stopping us!

For the last 3 years we've been talking about getting married and starting a family, however, we were both students and could not afford our dream wedding, let alone a ring. At the end of last year, Sven got a dream job offer that would start a new chapter in our lives. Never once did I think this new chapter would include a wedding. We had so many things to do and other places to budget our money, I was not expecting him to pop the question anytime soon. Plus, I had always thought I would know when he was planning it as I thought he would be nervous before hand, and I would be able to tell what was happening.

Fast forward to last Wednesday, January 8th 2014, my 25th birthday. He had planned a surprise dinner at my favorite restaurant with our close German friends and German family, it was a great dinner with great company. After dinner I opened my gifts from everyone, I got gorgeous thoughtful gifts from friends and family and from Sven I got socks, an electrical cord and a pair of pants. All of which are very practical gifts that I had mentioned I needed, but for my 25th birthday?! After dinner he went to his jacket and said he had one more gift for me. It still never crossed my mind that this was what he was doing. He asked me to stand up and started a speech with my favorite song, our favorite song, playing in the back round. I STILL didn't think anything of it! He started to get really nervous and said I was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, THIS was when I knew and I couldn't stop the tears from pouring! It was such a surreal feeling that I never want to forget, the man of my dreams, my best friend, openly devoting the rest of his life to me. It could not have been a better night, he had every detail covered. Not one person other than him knew of the proposal, everyone thought it was a gathering for my birthday, he had asked a friend to videotape his speech which I am SO thankful for and he had the diamond in my ring sent from a mine in Canada to Germany where he had it set so it has a mix of Canada and Germany in it.

Truly an amazing man, I cannot imagine my life without him in it!

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