Rachel met Isaac a couple weeks after he moved to the Middle East to start coaching at a local CrossFit gym. She had already been living there for about five months, studying Arabic.
A couple of Rachel's friends were members at the CrossFit gym where Isaac worked. They all started hanging out together. After many game nights and camping trips, Isaac and Rachel became friends (and also Catan rivals.)
One Saturday morning, Isaac and Rachel went to their local climbing gym to crush some routes and get a workout in. Isaac was still pretty new to climbing, so Rachel was helping him learn some technique.
After climbing, Isaac took Rachel to the coffee shop he had been keeping a secret from everyone else. They talked for hours and eventually got hungry, so they ate lunch together, too.
They ended the day by playing a game of Catan with another friend and watching Frozen. At this point, Rachel was pretty suspicious that Isaac liked her. He had even tried to hold her hand during the movie.
A few days later, at a mutual friend's birthday party, Rachel and Isaac ended up washing dishes together in the kitchen. After a few minutes of normal conversation, Isaac told Rachel how he had really enjoyed spending that whole Saturday with her and asked if he could start pursuing her. According to Isaac, Rachel responded with, "I guess that's okay."
After a few more weeks of "getting to know each other," including a super fun camping trip of course, Rachel and Isaac officially started dating on October 31, 2018. They definitely did not realize that it was Halloween.
Since traveling is such a big part of Rachel and Isaac's lives, they decided to take a trip to Europe over the holidays to see if they could travel well together. They visited Lithuania and Norway and did not kill each other in any of the airports.
Isaac proved he knows Rachel super well by taking her horseback riding one weekend. She was in absolute heaven.
Isaac crushed the last workout of the CrossFit Open while Rachel cheered.
On April 14, 2019, Isaac's one-year anniversary in the Middle East, he took Rachel hiking. On this hike, he read Rachel a poem that he had written for her, got down on one knee, and asked her to marry him. She said yes!