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OUR STORY

Katrina written. Anthony approved.
 
{ Click here for the video version }

​The Proposal

“It would make me so happy if you would take these rings, my darling.” Those words came unexpectedly as I looked down at Anthony’s grandmother’s rings. It was not the proposal I expected. I looked back at his grandmother and said, “Of course.” And so it happened that my first Chin Loy proposal came from Anthony’s grandmother who asked me to be a part of the family in December 2011. It would take Anthony another 14 months for the words to come out of his mouth. In February 2013 we took a weeklong vacation to Kaua’i, Hawai’i. From the moment we set foot on the island, surrounded by so much natural beauty, we were in awe and eager for adventure. On the second day of our trip we sailed along the Napali Coast, catching sight of whales putting on a show, dolphins flirting with our boat and clouds dancing on mountaintops with glimpses of rainbows. Just as the sun was setting over the Pacific and the last few rays were hitting the Napali behind us, Anthony got down on one knee and asked me the most important thing he’s ever asked me: “Will you marry me?” Behind tears of joy from a broken promise that I would not cry when this moment came, I said, “Yes.” He put the ring on my finger, the same ring that his grandmother had wanted us to have, and just like that everything fit together so perfectly: the ring on my finger, my hand in his, our life together.



 

    The Story of Us

      WARNING: Long and corny. Enjoy.

Once upon a summertime a group of guys went out to meet up with a bunch of girls for a night out on the town. There was talking and dancing, of course, but not much else. The story might have ended here, but lucky for us it did not. Fast-forward to a few months later when a handsome surgical intern named Anthony was saving lives in the busy Emergency Room of Howard University Hospital in Washington, DC. A trauma patient had just come in with multiple cuts over her body. When the patient was stabilized, I followed Anthony to her bedside.  After reassuring her that the worst was over he turned to me and said, “We need to suture up these lacerations, would you like to do it?” Being the eager third year medical student that I was, of course I replied “Yes.” Totally calm and collected, he guided me through the whole process and right then and there I was impressed.



Naturally, I did not admit I was smitten at the time and we went through the rest of my surgery rotation bonding over surgery tools, corny song lyrics and one-liners from television shows. At the end of my rotation Anthony pulled out his moves: he invited me to watch The Office with him on Netflix. One episode became every episode. From there came the barbeques and Rockband parties, and even the birth of a blog on the Paleo lifestyle. Thus formed the basis of our relationship: food, medicine and fun. It was during this time that we learned love through laughter.



Before we knew it, we wanted to spend every free second together – And we did. That is, up until Anthony got a job offer in California. So with trusting hearts we moved Anthony from Washington, DC to Irvine, CA over Fourth of July weekend in 2011: a 2671-mile cross-country road trip in three days, with fireworks in Indianapolis, Denver and Las Vegas along the way. The solo flight back east was difficult, but I was quickly back to my daily grind. I kept busy with my final year of medical school, while Anthony was adjusting to the nuances of his new life as a post-doctoral research fellow.  Interviews for medical residency on the west coast and research conferences on the east coast allowed us to be in the same time zone at least once a month while we mastered the balance of FaceTime and snail mail in between visits. It was during this time that we learned love through patience.

Then in March 2012 came a big visit, with even bigger news in the form of a very little envelope. I found out that I matched into medical residency at my top choice, University of California, Irvine.  One more cross-country move, this time minus the road trip, and we were finally in the same city again.  Our new life together in Southern California was full of visits to the farmer’s market, trips to Disneyland, sunsets on the beach, competitions and training in Brazilian jiu jitsu, long hours healing in the hospital and delicious gluten-free, Paleo treats for our tummies (and the blog). It was during this time that we learned love through spending time together.



We didn’t think that life could get much better… but then it did, in the form of Mochi, a Siberian husky that we adopted from the shelter. After the initial period during which she ate through our couches, curtains, rugs and doors, she brought so much warmth and joy into our lives that we truly believed we had everything we needed. And then, when we were certain that now life could not possibly get better, to our surprise, it got sweeter still. Anthony asked me to marry him. After our first few months of engaged bliss we got thrown a couple curve balls including having to switch back to a long distance relationship and losing our Mochi, but even hard times together are better than easy times apart... So although it hasn’t been a perfect journey, we do know that everything has fallen into place better than we could have dreamed or designed, which can only mean that the best is yet to be. There will be a million more adventures and a million more ways that we will learn love, but one thing’s for certain, when you ask us to sum up our relationship 200 years from now, we will say, “We lived happily ever after.”



The beginning.

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