We are so excited to share the engagement photos of this sweet couple! Jon grew up with Mindy's family in Missouri, so it was definitely very special for us to be a part of this fun time in their lives. Eric lives about 1.5 hours from us, close to the mountains. Mindy often braved the long drive to visit Eric [it took us 18 hours to get home from MO a few weeks ago, but it really should be more like 12 or 13...] while Eric periodically flew to see her and her family. Here is a little bit on how they met!

How they met and fell in love + The Proposal

We met at a little Cracker Barrel in Hickory, North Carolina. We were both getting ready to go on a 3 month long mission trip to India together and we had never seen each other before. It wasn't love at first sight, at least not for me ;) (Mindy) but as we spent the whole summer together taking the Gospel to India, we became closer friends and got to know a lot about each other. Little did I know that we'd be dating within a week of getting back. We felt like God had brought our lives together, so we decided to enter into a relationship that sought to honor Him. Our relationship is long distant, with me in Missouri and him in North Carolina, so there have been lots of phone calls and FaceTime's the past year. Long road trips have been frequent in our relationship as well.

A few months ago, I decided to go back to India for the summer. This was difficult because communication was hard due to the time change. But we knew that God was opening this door for me and I didn't want to miss it. The day I stepped off the plane and came back to America, which was also exactly one year after our first date, he took me to a little park on the lake and we had a picnic together. He told me he thought it was about time, and he asked me if I would marry him. I said, "Yes, of course I will!"