Noah had a few seconds to decide what he should do with the Tiffany and Co. necklace in his pocket. Maria had just refused to date him. Should he still give it to her?
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He decided that he would. When she returned to the table, Noah pulled out the ribbon wrapped Tiffany & Co. box and accompanying card and presented it to her. Her eyes flashed with excitement, surprised that he was giving her a gift after she had just turned him down. She opened the card which read, “To the girl who has my heart,” and opened the tiffany blue box to find a silver aqua coloured heart necklace inside. She was happy to receive the gift and thanked him.
Noah mentioned to her that if she was leaving the country, perhaps he would travel to a few countries in the area while she was gone.
“Well,” she said, “why don’t you just come with us.”
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Yes! That was exactly what he was hoping she would offer.
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“Okay,” he replied. “I wouldn’t be imposing on you and your friend?”
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“I’ll ask her, but I think it will be fine.”
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After hearing back that Maria’s friend Dasha was okay with Noah joining them, he booked the second last ticket on their flight and a last-minute Airbnb in the city.
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That night, Noah returned to his apartment exhausted. He knew that he wanted this girl. He knew that she was the one he wanted to marry, yet he was running out of time. He had hoped to marry her while they were in Ukraine because they would need to get married in order to get her paperwork going to come to Canada, and that process could take a year. That meant that he only had 10 weeks to convince her to marry him and plan a wedding, but before he could do any of that, she had to agree to date him!
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The pressure was on. If there was any chance of hope, he would have to make a good impression with her on their trip to Poland the next day.

The next day, we landed in Krakow late at night with Maria’s friend Dasha. By the time Noah arrived at his Airbnb, it was after midnight. In the morning, the three of us met at McDonalds in the city centre and went around to some museums, an art gallery and stopped at a Georgian restaurant for lunch.
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In the evening, Noah walked with the girls to the train station as the house they were staying at was outside of the city. Saying goodbye to Maria at the train station left Noah with a feeling of sadness. He imagined having to return to Canada knowing that he had failed to get her, and that was just unacceptable! He had to figure out a way to win her heart.
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Walking back to his Airbnb, he saw that Maria’s mom had messaged him. In the message, her mom told Noah that if he really loved Maria, he would not give up on her and encouraged him to be persistent. It was a great encouragement for Noah to know that Maria’s mom was on his side!
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The next morning, we met downtown and went out to look for coffee. Maria wanted to return to the coffee shop we had gone to the day before called Gossip Coffee. Noah asked her if she wanted to try a different place and she replied that she didn’t. When he asked why, she told him, “When you find something perfect that you really like, there’s no point searching for something else because you’ve already found what you wanted. Why risk something worse when you have already found something perfect?”
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Noah understood where she was coming from because that was exactly how he felt about her. When we arrived at the coffeeshop, it was packed inside, and Maria said that we could keep walking and find another place.
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“Uhm, no,” Noah crossed his arms. “We are going to stay right here.”
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Maria looked at him curiously. “Why?”
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“Because this is where you wanted coffee, so this is where we are getting it.”
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She found Noah’s reaction peculiar but decided that it was fine to stay.

Arriving back in Kyiv from Poland, Noah asked Maria to go on a date in the morning. Thankfully for him, Maria agreed, and he made a reservation for the next morning at a nice restaurant called “Under Wonder”.
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At the restaurant in the morning, Noah began, “I wanted to ask you, since our time together at Lavina Mall, have your feelings for me at all changed?”
Maria’s lips tensed as she was caught off-balance by his question. After a moment of contemplation, she replied, “I think I’m beginning to warm up to you.”
“Good,” he nodded. “Do you remember when you wanted to go back to Gossip Coffee in Poland and when we arrived you wanted to leave because it was busy?”
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“Yes,” she replied.
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“Do you know why I didn’t let you leave?”
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She shook her head.
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“Because I remember you telling me why you wanted to go back there. You told me that when you find a coffee place you really like, you don’t need to look for another place because you risk finding something not as good and there is no point taking that risk when you have already found what you want. This made sense to me because that is how I felt about you, so when you wanted to leave, I didn’t let you, because I wanted you to have good coffee.”
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Our server brought us over our lattes and Noah wrapped his hands around his glass. “Maria,” he looked her directly into her eyes, “I’m a really good cup of coffee, and I want to make sure you have good coffee in life, and I don’t control the brewing standards in all the other coffeeshops out there, but I know where you can find good coffee.” He pulled out a small electronic “YES!” button he had purchased in Poland and put it in front of her. “This button,” he continued, “represents you saying yes to being in a relationship with me, and I want you to push the button.”

We were sitting across from each other on a Sunday morning in Kyiv at the restaurant “Under Wonder.” Noah had just asked Maria to date him, again. Now, he waited for her answer. Maria began shifting in her seat. “You want me to decide now?”
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Noah nodded. 
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“This is a lot to process,” she touched her hair. “I’m used to making decisions for other people, but when it has to do with me, I don’t like to make big decisions.” Her eyes scanned the room. “You want me to make a decision now?”
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“Yes,” Noah replied, “I would like that very much.”
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She turned her head and gazed into the distance in contemplation. “Well, then can I have a minute to think about it?”
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“Of course. Take you time,” Noah took a sip of his latte. For the next minute, he watched her face with anticipation as she pondered the situation. This was the moment of truth. Would she reject him again, or would she change her mind? 
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After a while, a smile broke on her face and her eyes narrowed. She leaned forward and slammed her hand down on the button. 
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Yes! Noah reached across the table and took her hand firmly. Finally, it felt like he could breathe. “Thank you,” he told her. It was one of the happiest moments of his life.
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The next thing Noah did was bold. He called an uber and took her back to Lavina mall. Inside the mall, he told her that since he was crazy enough to come halfway around the world to date her, and since she was crazy enough to say no to him, they were going to do something crazy to start their dating relationship. They were going to pretend that they were in a serious relationship for a long time and go engagement ring shopping!
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Maria looked at Noah in astonishment as he took her hand and went into various jewelry shops. He needed to figure out her ring size and see what she liked, because, after all, his plan was to ask her to marry him ASAP.

We had just returned from the city of Odessa where we had attended a youth camp. Maria had been busy serving which meant that although we had been dating for a week, we hardly had time to spend together. The day after we arrived back in Kyiv, Noah took Maria on a date to a Georgian restaurant. This was our first real date now that we were officially dating.  
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Noah asked Maria what some of her dreams were. She told him that she wanted to ride in a hot air balloon and spend a night in a lighthouse. She pulled out her phone and showed him a picture of a red and white lighthouse. When Noah saw the picture, he was surprised because it was the Fisgard Lighthouse by his house in Canada. He assumed that she had been researching where he lived. 
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“Where did you find that photo?” he asked.
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“I saw it years ago and really liked it and saved it.”
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Noah sat up in my chair, his eyes growing wide. “Do you know where this is?”
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“Where?”
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“This is the lighthouse right by my house in Canada!”
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“What?”
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“Yeah. It’s literally a few minutes drive from my place.”
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“Really?” her eyes beamed.
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We were both stunned. What was even more amazing was the fact that I had driven down to the beach overlooking that lighthouse to pray about her and it was on the very night that I was there that I decided that I would return to Ukraine with the intention of asking her to marry me. Of all the lighthouses in the world, she had saved a picture of that one, the one by Noah’s house. 
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We both marveled at the discovery. It had to be more than coincidence. We spent the rest of our evening walking around Maria’s favourite district in Kyiv, Podil, which also happens to have lots of coffee shops.
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Another coincidence? Nope 😉

“I’m going to pick you up tomorrow morning at 4:30,” said Noah.
Maria looked at him with clear surprise. What was he up to?

After going home and sleeping for two hours, Noah returned to Maria’s apartment where he took her to a black SUV with four strangers inside. We began driving outside of the city. 

At first, Maria speculated that we were going to another city, but when we turned off the highway, it was clear that wasn’t the case. We drove for around forty minutes and ended up in the middle of what looked to be a field in the middle of nowhere. When the driver told us we could exit the vehicle, Maria jumped out, eager to bask in the glowing sun coming over the trees on the horizon. 

Noah stood in front of Maria and put his hands on her shoulders. “Are you ready to know what we are doing today?”

“Yes,” her eyes shot open.

“Okay,” he said. “Then turn around.” 

When she turned back to look at the SUV, she could see that there was trailer attached to the back with a picture of a hot air balloon. She turned to Noah, her mouth agape, and soon began jumping up and down and hugging him. “It’s been my dream!”

“I know,” he said. “That’s why we are going to do it.” As they were blowing up the balloon, we got to stand inside and take pictures. Once it was inflated, we hopped into the basket and began floating away. The view of the green farmland, fields of sunflowers and hills was stunning. We floated directly over patches of trees, and it was strange to be able to look over the basket and see nothing but empty space below. Maria was thrilled at the experience and was smiling like Noah had never seen her before.

After landing, we went back to Under Wonder for breakfast and then to a bench overlooking Podil, the coffee district of the city. It was there that Noah got down on one knee and popped the question. We had been dating for a total of 21 days, Now, Noah was about to find out if his mission to Ukraine would be successful… 

Noah had just asked Maria to marry him and was waiting for her response. Was three weeks of dating too soon? He was about to find out. 
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Maria was clearly surprised and with a big smile on her face, she said yes! In three weeks, Noah had gone from not knowing if Maria would agree to date him, to being engaged. 
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It was a huge win.
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But then he asked her another surprising question. “Maria,” he looked at her intently, “one thing I ask is that we get married before I have to go back to Canada, in the next five weeks.”
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Maria looked at him with a glint of fear in her eyes. She shouldn’t have been too surprised. This was coming from the guy who had taken her ring shopping an hour after they started dating.
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The reason Noah wanted to move so quickly was that he could not apply for Maria to come to Canada until they were married, and the process usually took around a year.
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When Maria showed up to her church the next day and told her youth leader that we were engaged, he was shocked and at a loss for words. Hardly anyone knew that Maria was dating, let alone engaged! And who was the strange Canadian who had convinced her? Maria was known as the girl who turned down all of the guys, so this was indeed surprising news.
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To make a long story short, her church would only let us get married if we went through a marriage school that was scheduled for after Noah had to go back to Canada. So, the wedding would likely have to wait until the following year when the school was finished. We agreed to wait and Noah would take the course online in Canada.
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At the start of September, Maria dropped Noah off at Boryspil Airport in Kyiv. It was extremely difficult for Noah to leave Maria there, but he could leave knowing that he had successfully convinced the woman he had fallen in love with to marry him. His trip to Ukraine had been a success. 
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Little did they know the future challenges that awaited them.