During the summer of 2011, both of our middle school orchestras went to Chicago. When a group of kids were picking on Josh's naturally rosy cheeks, Dana spoke up and said, "I like your face"... The rest is history.
We have now been dating for eight years, through high school, college, new homes, careers, and so on. We are looking forward to the next chapter in our lives together.
We aren't sure who started it, but we have always said that we love each other "To Peru and back". We have concluded our letters to one another other this way, have said this before saying goodnight each night, and have said this when we want to let the other know how much we love them. Peru became not only a place that we wanted to visit some day, but became a symbol of "I love you".
When thinking of a way to propose to Dana, Josh kept going back to the phrase that meant so much. He thought, "What if I showed her that I actually loved her to Peru and back?"
She had no idea what was about to come...
January 1st, 2019:
Josh had secretly prepared and packed our bags the day before. When we woke up on this New Year's Day, Josh told Dana, "We will have to cancel our plans for today, because today is a date day." Since Josh knew that she would probably would figure out that he was proposing to her, he went ahead and got the actual proposal out of the way, at the start of the day.
Josh proposed in front of the "Welcome to Peru" sign in Peru, Indiana. Little did Dana know that this would be foreshadowing a much bigger surprise.
After proposing, Josh told Dana to hop in the car, because the next stop was Chicago to celebrate for a few days...
Once we arrived Chicago, we went to our favorite restaurant in the world, RPM Italian. It was there, that Josh gave Dana her long-awaited surprise... Plane tickets that left the next day for Peru.
Dana was so excited and overwhelmed, that she wasn't even hungry for her favorite restaurant. We spent the next day preparing for the trip and left in the evening...
After delays, cancellations, and two red-eye flights, we finally made it to Peru. We were exhausted, but that didn't matter at all once we arrived. The Peru Trip was the most adventurous and exhilarating experience we have had. We cannot believe that it all worked out so perfectly. We feel extremely lucky to each have someone who loves adventure and travel, as much as the other. We can't wait for our next crazy adventure!