This is when it all began...

We met over a year ago, at KEDMA, an International Student Organization where I worked. I was a project coordinator for a student organization, and he was a student. At the time he was spending his second year in Eterz Yisroel, in Yeshivat Har Etzion.He came into my office on the first day of my job, and he liked me immediately.

We used to take walks together, we went out to eat, and spoke for hours and hours. I remember one time, he tried to play a trick on me. A nasty one in fact. He tried to convince me that he was very depressed, and that he was going to go home, to America. (You see, I live in Israel, which is way across that Atlantic Ocean). I told him at the time, that if he was kidding, he better stop, and if he denied the fact that he was kidding, I would believe him, and try to help him. He couldn't lie to me. He was rather frustrated at that fact. I don't think that at the time he (or I, for that matter) really understood what it was that made him confess to me. But he did, and that just made my faith in him grow.

As it turned out, he did go home. He wasn't feeling well, and as it turned out, he had mono. At first, I missed him, but I didn't feel like a part of me was missing. He was a good friend, but I figured that I'd make new friends, and move on. Until that time I went to the states to visit my family. He spent the weekend with me. I thought it was amusing when he came over and brought me flowers, but I didn't think much of it. I really cared for him a lot as a friend, but at the time, there was nothing more to it.

He took me to the airport when it was time for my departure. I remember sitting there on the airport on a bench with him, and crying. I don't think he had even seen me cry before. And I was crying because I knew that I would miss him. It didn't click automatically. It took me quite a while till I figured out what had happened. I had fallen in love with my best friend.

For months after I got back to Israel, we spoke on the phone, and constantly e-mailed each other. We couldn't bare nor knowing what was going on with one another, though we never described our relationship. When people ask me now how long we had been going out before we got engaged, I just don't know what to say. We were far away from each other physically, but we never left each others side emotionally. We stood by each other, during difficult times, and tried to comfort one another as much as possible.

He came in January for his cousin's wedding, and spent all his extra time with me. We went to the Israel Museum (which we don't really recommend....), and had a snowball fight. And I told him during that visit how important he was to me. That I guess is when it all started.