Six months ago I left China, my home for the past six years. Since then my life has changed so much I don’t know where to start. I have retyped these first few sentences over and over again. The fact that I am a very private person has compounded the awkwardness of giving an update, as there is so much to share. How do I catch up my family and friends from years of my life in just a few paragraphs? Should I have been keeping everyone in the loop? Or in the present system are we all expected to post online every major and minor change in our lives for all to see? Regardless I didn’t, so here I am updating you all on the amazing changes that have happened in my life.

To discuss these changes in my life, I must first introduce Sunia….

I met Sunia during my first day in China, she is a Korean-American from Minnesota. In fact, she was on the same plane as me flying over to also teach for the first time overseas. I still remember the first time I saw and met her. All the new teachers were waiting in line to get a ticket for the ferry to cross over from Hong Kong to China. After I had my ticket and I looked back and one last teacher came into the ferry line, introducing herself to everyone. We ended up sitting together on the ferry and talked as we watched the night skyline of Hong Kong drift off in the distance as we each started the next chapter of our life.

In China, we were both in the new teacher training and living in the same apartment complex. We ended up being friends with the same circle of friends. I remember my friend/coworker Sheryl asking about the new teachers, and I described Sunia as “super nice.” It was quite clear from the start the kindness of her heart. We ended up going on the same vacations with groups of friends to places such as Thailand and Tibet. As our friendship grew so did our care for each other, I came to know not only her overwhelming kindness to others, but that in many ways we have the same heart.

Flash forward several years with Covid gripping the world, causing many people to reevaluate their life and priorities. Sunia wanted to return back home to spend more time with her family, so we decided to move back to America. And so we decided to turn the page. During the chapters of our life in China, we started simultaneously and intertwined together by faith. In this new chapter, we decided to write the script ourselves and start it together purposely.

We continued this next chapter with our wedding celebration. Sadly due to covid, we did not want a big wedding, so we decided to have a private ceremony at her parents’ house. We have now bought a house and moved in together in Phoenix, Arizona. I can’t wait for everyone to meet her, but with so many changes as you can see we have been rather busy, and we are still limiting contact with others due to covid, so please bear with us.