Yuri

I was born in South Korea, then immigrated to the US as an infant. We landed in Koreatown in LA, but later moved down to Garden Grove in Orange County. Most of my childhood memories involve getting into mischief around the two different apartment complexes where we lived. I had the privilege of going to K-12 with the same school and group of friends! In high school, I was involved in cross country and track, and even tried out color guard for a semester.

I then went to college at UC Riverside, where I majored in Mathematics. During my time there, I got involved with the Asian American Christian Fellowship, and I quickly made friends with people on my campus and those at our sister campuses as well. A friend once described me as a social pterodactyl as opposed to a social butterfly. In my free time, I would cook and go biking when I could. One of my hobbies I do miss is crafting. I would scrapbook a lot and make t-shirts with puffy paint. (Maybe when I have children, I’ll pick it up again!)

I had an opportunity to work with Americorps and tutor students at the local high school. Through that experience, I saw that there was a need for special ed teachers who know math, so I decided to get my credential in SPED! I graduated with my BS in 2014, but I stayed at UCR for two more years to get my teaching credentials and a degree in Education.

While in grad school, I attended Urbana 2015 and that’s where I learned about missions. I got connected with United World Mission (now known as Mesa Global), and I committed to serving as a teacher in Mexico for two years. Well, I later decided to stay longer, but in order to do that I had to go to the CIT training in North Carolina.

Aaron

I spent my childhood in rural Pennsylvania, growing up next to a farm where I'd run around in the woods or ride around on my bike.

When I was twelve we moved to the small town of Halifax, PA (just north of Harrisburg). I was a huge band geek and did a lot of marching band or just hanging out with friends playing video games.

I then went to Grove City College where I majored in Computer Science. It was a really amazing time, having way too much fun working on programming projects and making some incredible friends. If they were to describe me, they would probably say that I'm easy going and a calming, but talkative if given the opportunity to geek out on the right subject, dependable and intentional, and eager to plan social events.

I graduated in 2011, then spent most of the 2010s pursuing a doctorate in CS at the University of Michigan. Outside of my studies, I started getting into cooking and discovered I have a real passion for it. For fun, I enjoy video games and board game nights with friends. I love the outdoors, especially mountains, and going hiking and biking.

While in Ann Arbor, I was highly active in my church, and led various community groups. It was through my connections there that I learned about UCBC - a Christian university in eastern Congo that was looking for people to come an serve, including teaching computer science. I ultimately decided I would go and work there after grad school, which is how I ended up at a certain training in NC which is where our story begins.

How We Met

We initially met in 2021 at a training for missionaries in North Carolina (CIT). Outside of the group sessions, the eight of us who were single would do meals and hang out or play games together. One day, I learned that Aaron wanted to be in our cooking rotation as well. He cooked for us two separate times; making tikka masala and carnitas! Aaron even had all the separate toppings all mise-en-place'd! I remember after that meal, one of the girls asked Aaron the question “How are you still single?” (I was wondering the same thing!)

I remember one of the first things that really struck me about Yuri was during our first one-on-one conversation. I was asking her about her teaching experience in Mexico, and was so struck by her passion for teaching and how much she clearly cared about her students and was so intentional with them. It was a very inspiring and attractive quality!

The last week of classes, Aaron asked me if he wanted to grab lunch together again. I was very giddy and excited to have lunch with him, one last time. Aaron and some of our other friends stayed at CIT for language acquisition while I left for California. The single girls and I kept texting over the next two to three weeks…and Aaron I kept texting as well. Well, the girls and I naturally stopped texting each other over time, but somehow my conversations with Aaron kept going!

As we continued to talk, I realized more and more how much I liked Yuri, but was a bit frozen with indecision about what to do. Well, Yuri wasn't so frozen, and so one time when we were on the phone she came right out and asked "What is this? What are you intentions?" Well, after a (very long) pause while my brain was scrambling, I finally admitted I had a "camp crush" on Yuri, and turned out it was mutual!

We kept talking and flirting and me being the patient person that I am, I asked him on another phone call when he was going to ask me out! Turns out he was getting there in that very conversation, but I jumped the gun! That was Aug 4, and we'd been dating ever since.

Our Relationship

Our relationship has very unconventional, out of the first 2+ years we only spent maybe 2 weeks together in person: one in Oaxaca and one in France. Otherwise we were very long distance - Mexico to France/Congo. We did our best to have meaningful date nights -- ordering food, playing games, dressing up, reading books together, watching movies. Despite sometimes unreliable internet connections, our relationship continued to develop and grow more serious.

About 4 months into the relationship I flew down to Oaxaca for New Years. I remember being so excited counting down the days, but also nervous what it would be like to be together in person for the first time. Well, I shouldn't have been, because that week was like magic and just flew by (even if she made me paint her walls one of the days).

Because Aaron was about to leave for the Congo for two years, my only opportunity to see him was to visit him in France. I saw so excited to see him that I planned a ton of things in our first weekend, and I think I tired him out! (And I was the 'jetlagged' one). I loved getting Aaron to translate everything for me (though he wasn't as in to eavesdropping on random conversations as I wanted). It was an amazing week, had lots of great food, but also bittersweet knowing it was going to be a very long time before we were with each other again.

After a very long time apart, I was able to go and serve alongside Aaron in the Congo after my time in Mexico wrapped up spring of 2023. I had so much fun teaching math with Aaron at the university and connecting with students (and making sure they knew their multiplication). I also loved cooking with Aaron and sharing it with friends and students. It was wonderful to finally get to do normal, everyday life with Aaron for more than a week.

Our Engagement

We spent our 2023 Christmas holidays in Kenya, and decided to vacation together at Diani beach. During our week in Diani, Aaron and I got to eat different foods and explore the town, and mostly just relax. Occasionally, Aaron had to spend a few hours on work since UCBC was still in session, but otherwise we had a great time in the sun.

So… I was actually spending that time putting plans together for a proposal. One of the main things was pulling out key moments and pictures from our relationship on Whatsapp, and making a slideshow re-telling our story. Once I had everything together, the stage was set. I just needed Yuri out of the room.

One of the days, Aaron booked me a suprise massage and a pedicure, then took me to a fancy restaurant. I was sure he was going to propose, but nothing happened at dinner. Afterwards, we went back to the hotel and walked back to our room. But as we were about to enter, he told me to give him two minutes to prepare.

He took me inside the room and had candles lit up everywhere. He shared the slideshow with me while he had songs playing in the background. Aaron had his whole proposal written down and he asked me to marry him, in Korean. After I said yes, the balloons came down from their hiding place in the mosquito net above us!

I'm so excited she said yes, and so excited to get married this August! Although we are looking forward to a small, intimate wedding, we're sad that so many of our friends and family won't be there. We can't wait to meet you all in person and we will share photos on this site after the wedding!