We met on Bumble on September 2023, and at first we didn't think anything would come off it. After all, I was in Ecuador and he was in the US. I was very surprised when he told me he had gotten a ticket to come to Ecuador to meet me in December of 2023. That trip was a whole mess. He arrived on a Friday night, and LATAM lost his bags. And the day after, Saturday, my grandpa had a big medical emergency. I will spoil that Grandpa made a full recovery and is doing great, but at the time he had a massive pulmonary embolism, which meant we needed to cancel our plans, and I dropped Tris off at his hotel to go be with my family at the hospital. That day was Saturday, December 2 and Tris was staying only for 2 more days. As chaotic as it was, he was an amazing support for me while I navigated the uncertainty of not knowing if grandpa was gonna make it or not. Thank God, he stabilized and on Saturday night we went to pick up Tristyn's bag from the airport. Tristyn will tell anyone who asks us our story that he fell in love with me at the airport. His words, not mine: This girl had had one of the worst days of her life, but she came to pick me up at the hotel and we drove an hour to the airport. She dragged me by the hand all over the airport while I just looked pretty, and she yelled at several people in Spanish to get my bag back. That's the moment I knew this is the woman for me. Thank God, the rest of the trip was uneventful and we were able to sightsee and get souvenirs. On December Saturday 3, he asked me to be his girlfriend.

We started a long distance relationship and for the whole of 2023, we travelled back and forth as much as we could. Tris traveled back to Ecuador for my birthday in February, I traveled to the US to see him in March, May and July. There were many teary goodbyes at the airport, I definitely have some funny stories about crying on planes, and a lot of excitement when we were close to seeing each other again. The in betweens were filled with facetime movie nights, we'd stay up until 2 am talking and I would only go to bed when I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. Our longest stretch without seeing each other were 3 months, from July until November 2024. I was pestering Tristyn about traveling down to see me and I had no idea at the time, but he had bought and engagement ring and asked my mom for my hand in marriage back in May. He had a group chat with my mom, my sister and my friends and they were planning a proposal. He flew down to Ecuador on November 8, grandpa's birthday. On november 9, I had planned a trip for us to go to hot springs an hour or so away from Quito and it was all part of the plan to keep us away from the house while my family and friends decorated my mom's apartment and gathered for the proposal. We came back from the hot springs, he said he'd go up to the apartment to go to the bathroom while I parked the car which was super normal to me. Our parking space is super narrow so I had to ask him to get out of the car to park anyway. I came up to the apartment carrying our bags, so I went to dump them on my bedroom. That's when I heard him calling me from the living room. Our proposal was candlelit thanks to the power cuts in Ecuador, my sister took photos of it, and Tristyn proposed in Spanish. After I said yes (just nodded my head cause I was crying) I stepped into the next room and saw all my friends and family were there with us and I cried some more. My grandma had prepared her famous rice tamales (which she claims she invented) and we had cake and a long sobremesa as is typical in latinamerican families. We called Tristyn's family to share the news, but they already knew he was proposing.

After our engagement, we had a couple more days together before Tristyn flew back to the US. November and December where a blur, and by Christmas I was flying with my family to the US to spend the Holidays with Tris and his family. The funny thing is we planned this trip before we got engaged, but I guess everyone but me knew haha. We had an amazing holiday, and I decided to extend my trip a little bit more and have my family fly back before I did. We originally planned to have the wedding in Ecuador, but ultimately decided to get married so we wouldn't have to go back to long distance. And we've been doing life together since then. We planned for a civil courthouse wedding with a big wedding to come, but his boss at Keiser University in Florida said no and took it upon herself to plan us a lovely small wedding at the campus. Keiser's notary offered to be our officiant for free, and Tristyn's parents where our witnesses. I wore my mother in law's veil from her wedding and it was incredibly heartwarming to see everyone come together for us. We've been doing life together ever since and it's been a whirlwind of immigration paperwork and moving to Texas when Tristyn found a better paying job, and now planning our big wedding for February 2026.