I, Justin, was born and raised in the U.S. in Aurora, IL, and Jeimmy was born in Bogota Colombia. We first met when Justin and seven others went on a student-led mission trip while attending Moody Bible Institute to Bogota, Colombia in 2004 to serve alongside a youth group. That is when I first met Jeimmy at my mother-in-law’s foundation. We exchanged emails through a missionary friend serving with us as a translator at the time. We started emailing back and forth for over two years until I decided to return to Colombia in 2006 to serve again with the same people, we served with the first time. While there I got to know Jeimmy more and asked her mother if I could date Jeimmy, to which she said, “Yes”. I then left Colombia again and we continued to get to know each other through email.

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In 2008, I planned a surprise engagement party for both of us with the help of my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law. I bought both engagement rings, my tuxedo, and the plane tickets and flew down to Colombia to a town called Tabio, where I asked Jeimmy to marry me. After becoming fiancés, I flew back to the U.S. and got everything prepared for her to come to the U.S. by applying for a Fiancé Visa. Jeimmy stepped foot on U.S. soil for the first time in December 2009. We were married on February 14, 2009, and had Anthony, our firstborn, a year later, and Gabriella, our daughter, a year after him.

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While living life in the U.S. with our new family for a while, we felt a growing restlessness in our hearts, as if the Lord was leading us to do something more. We went on an exploratory mission trip to Colombia in 2013, but the Lord closed the door to that opportunity. We then went on another exploratory trip to the Dominican Republic in 2014 and were asked by a missionary couple there to serve alongside them. After much prayer, counsel, and paperwork, the Lord opened the door for us to serve in the Dominican Republic as full-time missionaries alongside Rick and Becky Mackey.