Olivia and I met in 2015 during Olivia’s first tour as a Navy nurse and my first-year teaching in Washington DC. We dated for 3 years before Olivia found out the military was moving her to Rota, Spain. I did everything I could to find a job in Spain, but unfortunately, I was not able to find one. We started looking into other countries and realized that Morocco, Africa was only 3 hours by car and ferry from the town Olivia would be living in. To our surprise, we found an American school in Morocco that offered me a job. We like to say 2019 was the best year of our lives. We got to see each other every weekend and spent the summer and holidays together. We were able to travel all over Europe and Morocco, and it was a dream come true. In March 2020, our dream life abroad was ruined by COVID. The borders between Morocco and Spain shut down and we were not able to see each other for 9 months. We were desperate to see each other for the holidays, so I wrote a letter to the Spanish Border patrol and told our love story. To our surprise, they granted me the authority to travel between countries! I had the ring purchased and knew I wanted to propose during this trip, however, the ring was stuck in the states. I was not able to get the ring overseas due to insane insurance and ended up proposing on a rooftop overlooking Morocco, Gibraltar, and Spain without the ring. We kept it to ourselves as a private moment and I planned a second proposal with the ring once we returned to the States! In July 2021, I was finally able to propose with the ring surrounded by family during our first family vacation back in the States. We started scheduling appointments to begin planning our wedding, but everything was put on hold because Olivia got deployed to help with Afghanistan refugee efforts. Fast forward to now and we are FINALLY in full swing of planning our wedding! We cannot wait to FINALLY celebrate our love with our favorite people this Summer in Calvin’s hometown!