Another Upward Testimony:
told by Ellie:
On February 17th, I matched and exchanged first messages with Dylan on the Upward app. We continued talking and realized that we had a lot in common (but most importantly, we both love Jesus). I even found Dylan on Spotify and realized that he has a song out called Our First Kiss. I wrote my own verse and chorus to his song on February 19th and saved a recording of it in my voice memos. I showed my girlfriends and they all told me that he would fall in love with me if I sent it to him, so I did and he loved it.
Dylan is from Long Island, NY and I am from Belleville, ON (Canada) so we are about a 7-hour drive from each other. Dylan said that he wanted to fly me to New York so that we could record a reimagined version of his original song and meet each other for the first time in person. We decided with Covid-19 restrictions, the best option for us would be to wait on flying and try to figure out a way that we could cross the border by land. After getting to know each other over FaceTime for about 2 months and figuring out a solid driving plan, we decided that it was time to meet on April 6th.
I have dual citizenship (both Canada and USA) so it was easier for me to go to him first. So I got in my car and drove about 3 hours across the Lansdowne Cnadadian-USA border and into Syracuse where I would meet Dylan downtown, park my car, get into his car, and drive the remaining 5 hours of our trip together. We ended up talking on the phone almost every 30 minutes of our trip out of excitement and anticipation. When I was about to exit off of the highway and into Syracuse, I called Dylan and we talked until I could see him in real life. When I first laid eyes on him I could barely breathe... it was the most surreal moment of my entire life.
I pulled over to the side of the road and covered my face in disbelief that after 2 whole months, I was meeting Dylan in the flesh. He came around to the driver's side and opened my door for me. This is when we hugged each other for the very first time. After this, Dylan and I got comfortable very quickly. We parked my car, transferred my bags into his car, and walked around Syracuse. We got pizza for lunch and FaceTimed my family to let them know that I was safe with Dylan (obviously they were a bit nervous and skeptical of me driving so far to meet who they saw as a "stranger"). After we calmed down a little bit Dylan and I took to the road for the remaining 5 hours of the trip.
We drove past New York City and into Long Island where I would immediately meet his entire family and have dinner with them. So many things were happening so fast and it was like a dream come true; I was in a daze. On the second day together, we went to the studio to record our song, we went to the beach to watch the sunset, he asked me to be his girlfriend, I met most of his closest friends and his church family, we went hiking and exploring, we got great food together, and SO much more (side note: when the final studio version of our song got released, we cried together in awe that our dream had come true and we could finally hear our voices together. Our song reached 1000 streams in one month. Dylan had only taken a week off to be with me but while I was there the Covid-19 restrictions in Canada had tightened and I got laid off from my job. Dylan and I talked and we decided to extend my trip from 1 week to 3 weeks together. I stayed at home with his family while he would go to work and we would hang out at night, play music together, go for runs, etc.
I was in a daze for the first week because so much happened so fast. Those last 2 weeks allowed me to process everything and I was still so in love with Dylan. It is now the end of May, I am back in Canada, and Dylan and I are still doing long-distance via FaceTime. I am hoping to spend July and August in Long Island with him and maybe even show him around Canada this Summer depending on the restrictions.
I am so thankful to God that He brought me to Dylan, he is such an answer to prayer. We have talked about getting engaged by the end of this year and married by 2023. I would have NEVER imagined that I would find a lifelong partner on the Upward app, and neither did he, but we are SO thankful for it.
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