Our Story

When We First Met...

On October 15, 2023 we met for the first time at Leah's church in Houston. Tony and his sister Sandy were visiting the United States with mutual friends of Leah's family. Tony arrived during lunchtime and both of us noticed each other right away, but then Leah saw Tony's sister Sandy, and assumed that they were married. Leah's sister Susannah invited Tony, Sandy, and our mutual friends the Chavez Family to lunch. Even though Tony and our friends had already eaten they politely agreed to eat at Susannah's insistence. Soon Leah, Tony, Susannah, Sandy and our friends were sitting and talking as Tony politely ate a second lunch. 

The week before we met Leah had been at a Family Camp with her family in Big Sandy, TX, and had broken her nose while playing volleyball. So on the day we met, Leah had a black eye and a broken nose, but Tony still thought Leah had beautiful eyes. 

After Family Camp Leah's family usually stays an extra day to visit with friends who are on staff at the Family Camp campus but for "some reason" Leah's family decided to come back on Saturday instead of Sunday this time. Looking back now we both know that it was God guiding and directing Leah and her family to come back early so that she could be at her church and meet Tony. 

The week after we met Tony and Sandy had to go to Mississippi to visit friends for 2 weeks. During these two weeks Tony was thinking about Leah and thinking, "I need to see this girl again before I go back to Mexico".

Our Second Meeting...

On October 29, 2023 Tony and Sandy were back in the Houston area before leaving the United States the next day.  Tony kept thinking about Leah and how he could work it out to see her again. That morning Tony preached at a church in South Houston. Afterward, some of the people from the church invited Tony and Sandy to a restaurant for lunch.  Tony politely refused saying "No, thank you we are not hungry".  Tony was more focused on seeing Leah again than eating lunch that day. 

Tony and Sandy arrived at Leah's church during the afternoon service and sat behind Leah.  After the service, Leah and Tony talked some.  Leah noticed that Tony seemed quieter than the last time they had met and wondered why. Leah also noticed that Tony was speaking in Spanish a lot to a mutual friend from our church, Mr. Cepeda.  During the conversation, Mr. Cepeda said "you know Spanish, right Leah?"  Leah thought how odd that he would ask her this since she had known Mr. Cepeda for about 20 years and never spoken a word of Spanish to him!  Leah answered..."uh no, only a few food words...like fajitas...guacamole...". 

Leah's family was going to the beach for a family vacation the following week and usually when her family takes this vacation their beach house rental starts on Sunday. "For some reason" the beach house was not available that Sunday so Leah and her family were at her church that day and started their beach vacation on Monday instead.  Once again God was orchestrating details so Leah and Tony could see each other again.

Our first communication..."Greetings from Mexico"...

After Tony and Sandy returned to Mexico Tony found Leah on Instagram and sent her a friend request.  Leah was on vacation with her family at the beach in Galveston, TX when she saw Tony's friend request and thought..."hmmm...interesting" and accepted the request. Within 24 hours Tony messaged Leah saying "Hi Leah, greetings from Mexico!...How are you?"  Leah was even more curious if maybe Tony was interested in her, but she thought...."maybe he is just friendly to everyone and it doesn't mean anything...".  She mentioned her suspicions to her sisters and Hannah told her "I think he might be interested...if not in you then in getting to know someone in our family".  After waiting for about 24 hours Leah replied, "Hello Tony, Greetings from the beach. I'm doing well! How about you?" 

We continued to communicate during that week via Instagram.  Leah was not sure of Tony's intentions and didn't want to lead the conversation if Tony was only being friendly and not serious about getting to know her. So after a few days the conversation came to a natural close.  Tony replied to Leah and didn't ask a new question or bring up a new topic so Leah only "liked" his message and we did not communicate for a little over a week. 

Ten days later Tony started the conversation up again. Leah had a policy of not communicating with guys one-on-one unless it was for a particular stated purpose such as work. Leah had talked with her parents and they both agreed to give it a month to see what happened. During this time Leah was not sure how she felt. She wasn't even sure if Tony was interested in her or was just a friendly guy who wanted to practice his English.  If he did like her "then what?"  Leah loved her country and felt called to preserve it.  Tony lived in Mexico and English was his second language and she didn't know Spanish at all! Could they even communicate? Would he be willing to move to the US? These were the questions that were mulling around in Leah's mind. 

At this time Leah had also been interested in another guy and had been praying that God would open doors with this guy if it was His will.  Leah did not want to defraud Tony so after about a month and after talking with her parents Leah messaged Tony letting him know about her policy and that she was praying for someone else.  At this time, unbeknownst to Leah, Tony was also seeking God's will regarding another lady and praying that God would open or close a door with her. Tony responded to Leah's message and we stopped communicating.  Leah was impressed by Tony's response and wondered if she had made a mistake in stopping communication with him because his response showed her what a gentleman he was. 

December 2023

We did not communicate for the entire month of December. A potential relationship with each other was a closed door in both of our minds. But God had a different plan! As we both prayed during that month God worked in both of our hearts. During the last week of December, on the exact, same night, God confirmed to both of us separately that the other people we had been praying for were a closed door. But at this time we did not know that God had spoken to the other person, on the same day. It wasn't until many months later when we compared notes that we realized God had worked in this way. His timing is perfect! 

December 31, 2023

Leah prayed that if we were supposed to communicate again, then Tony would text her first. But she thought that he probably would not text her again since he was a gentleman and would respect her wishes to discontinue their communication.  On January 1, 2024 Tony was spending time with his family celebrating the New Year when he messaged Leah "Happy New Year Leah!...May God bless you greatly and grant the requests of your heart!" Leah was surprised that her prayer had been answered, only hours after she had prayed it! She responded back with "Thank you Tony! Happy New Year to you too!". Even though Leah had prayed for Tony to text her she wasn't sure if she was ready to communicate again and wanted to talk it through with her parents first. 

Communicating again...

On January 4, 2024 Leah texted Tony letting him know that she was interested in continuing communication again, as long as he was. Tony responded, "...of course, I would love to continue communicating with you and get to know you more if you allow me!"  Tony's last 4 words of his response made a deep impression on Leah and showed her once again what a gentleman Tony was. We continued texting back and forth and did two video calls to teach each other Spanish/English.  During this time Leah still wondered if we would be able to communicate well in person given the language barrier. She also wondered what Tony thought about moving to the United States, but did not have peace about directly asking Tony this question at this time.

Tony's Visit

On April 16, 2024 Tony flew to the US to visit Leah and her family for the first time. The first 4 days we had a lot of fun just being together, having breakfast picnics, visiting Tony's dad in San Antonio, playing soccer and basketball with Leah's siblings, and talking about the future. 

On the night of April 21, 2024, Tony asked Leah what she thought about starting an official relationship. Leah replied that Tony would need to talk to her dad first to get permission. Leah also warned Tony that her dad would have a lot of questions for him! 

Courtship

On April 22, 2024 on one of our breakfast picnics we once again discussed the possibility of starting an official relationship. Leah again warned Tony that her dad had a LOT of questions for him to which Tony replied, "I am ready".  Leah was once again impressed by Tony's confidence and respect for her. 

At the end of our breakfast picnic, Leah's dad asked us if we wanted to shoot his new pistol with him on the back part of the property. Leah needed to help her mom inside with preparations for her sister Priscilla's birthday party that evening, but Tony accepted the invitation.  After Tony, Leah's dad and brother Josiah finished shooting Tony asked permission to court Leah. Leah's dad replied that he was happy that Tony had come to visit Leah and asked for Tony's email address.  Tony was surprised that Leah's dad needed his email address for these questions! Leah had tried to warn him that it was alot of questions!  

After receiving the questionnaire Tony immediately started working on it. During this time the Herzog family came over to celebrate Priscilla's birthday and everyone encouraged Tony as he worked hard to finish the questionnaire. 17 pages and 5 hours later Tony finished in record time! The next morning Leah, her parents and Tony went to breakfast and Leah's dad gave Tony permission to start courting Leah. 

During Tony's visit we both realized that we liked each other even better in person and started falling in love. We also realized that we could communicate in person and that our differences in language were only a barrier if we let it be.  Instead of letting our differences pull us apart, we decided to view it as a challenge that would bring us closer together as we worked together.

We continued our courtship long distance with video and phone calls. We also visited each other in person every 2 months. 

Engagement…

Leah: On August 27, 2024 the man of my dreams asked me to marry him in the most beautiful and romantic proposal! Tony rented a Hacienda with beautiful gardens and had my family and his stationed throughout the venue with flowers and a card attached with important dates in our relationship. Each person told me where to go next to find the next person and the next date in our relationship. As I kept walking closer to Tony I could hear our favorite love song playing. Then I saw Tony with 2 dozen roses! We talked through the dates I had received and what they meant to us in our relationship and he asked me to marry him to which I replied “yes, yes, yes with all of my heart!”

I am overwhelmed by the goodness of God to bring such a godly, loving, kind, fun and generous man into my life! It’s incredible to see how God has brought us together from different countries and cultures…yet so perfect for each other! 

Tony: I can’t describe how happy I am to find the young lady I was looking for for a long time, so beautiful inside and out, a sincere friend, talented, intelligent, humble, God-fearing, a believer and follower of the truth. It has been incredible how God has made it possible, with the blessing of God and our parents we have moved forward and now I want to spend the rest of my life with you Leah!

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6