Couple happily engaged despite living nearly 9,000 miles apart

By Ben Barry via SWNS

Meet the couple happily engaged despite living 8,697 miles apart and on different continents - and say trust is the key to their relationship.

Sarah Dorough, 21, and Luke Bond, 22, got engaged on Dec. 17, 2022, after just a year of dating.

The smitten pair met online in December 2021 and would FaceTime every day before finally meeting in July 2022.

Luke, a fitness instructor, traveled for 32 hours to Suffolk, Va., to meet Sarah and her family.

In December 2022, Sarah flew to Luke's home in Wellington, New Zealand, and spent Christmas with him and his family.

On December 27, 2022, Luke surprised Sarah by popping the question and the pair are now set to wed in New Zealand next year and have plans of moving in together one day.

Sarah, a fitness coach, said: "Our relationship is exciting and adventurous.

"It is just all-around fun, loving and caring.

"I love that he is funny and kind, we have such strong communication and interest in each other.

"The biggest thing is trusting each other, especially when you're far away from each other, there is always going to be little thought that can pop into each other's head.

"Luke and I never have any concerns about what the other person is doing as we have that bond and trust."

The pair met on Instagram in December 2021, bonding over their mutual interest in fitness.

Sarah said: "He was asking me some questions about fitness as he is also doing personal training.

"The next time he reached out I felt like I kind of knew him, which made me a little more comfortable, but also, he was asking about my faith and Christianity.

"He was more genuine and asking about bible verses and stuff like that."

The pair hit it off straight away and immediately started to FaceTime each other, before officially dating in July 2022.

After going long-distance dating for a few months, the pair finally met in July when Luke flew over to the states to see Sarah and ask her to be his girlfriend.

She said: “We would talk around two times every day and talk for a long time and making it work with the time zones is hard too.

“We were already invested in each other from the call, so from there, that’s when we were like, if we are going to move forward and have a relationship, we need to meet in person as we don’t want to be online together.

"When I first met Luke in person, it almost felt like a dream.

"An experience I haven't ever felt before, that first hug was something we had waited so long for, so you can only imagine how exciting that moment was when we ran up to each other and gave each other a hug.

"To this day, that moment still blows my mind."

They both considered the 8,697 miles between them but couldn't ignore how they felt about each other.

After meeting for the first time in July 2022, Sarah flew out to Wellington, New Zealand, to spend Christmas with Luke and his family.

Luke popped the question in December 2022, on a family camping trip in Lake Taupō.

He got down on one knee after taking Sarah to a "special spot" while on a kayak ride.

Sarah said: "It was super exciting, this was something we had to work out - whether we do want to spend our lives together - we did figure that out because we don't want to keep traveling back and forth.

"I knew it was coming but I wasn't exactly sure about the day, it was really amazing - such a special moment."

Sarah said her family expected the pair to get into a relationship and get engaged - adding that they weren't shocked.

She said: "I think everyone knew, ever since he was coming all the way from the other side of the world to see me - most people knew it was coming."

The next time the pair will meet is in April, when Luke is planning a trip to the US to see Sarah and her family.

Sarah said her and Luke's relationship works so well as they have trust in each other and communicate but it can be hard from time to time.

She said: "We really struggle but we also have a few things that we do to make the long-distance better, like having proper communication, prioritizing our calls and having trust in each other - we really trust each other.

"Communication is important, making sure that you really understand and talk through what you're going through because you are not there with the person a lot of times so you're going day to day about what is going on and walking each other through those steps."