In October 2010, Jared Lamb packed a suitcase for his girlfriend, Rachel Boteach, after finding her favorite beach outfits on Facebook. He grabbed her passport and dressed his family dogs in bride and groom costumes.
He made breakfast and awoke Rachel that morning at 5 o’clock.
She groggily joined him downstairs, and with Dr. Richard and Sharon Lamb secretly looking on, he sat her in front of a video montage of their relationship and knelt down to ask her to marry him.
After eating, they headed to the Bahamas to celebrate. Linda and David Boteach were in on the surprise as well, as they had given Jared their approval.
Mutual friends introduced Rachel and Jared at the University of Maryland in the fall of 2005, and she developed a “huge crush.” She made an effort to talk to him each time he visited her dorm and through AOL’s Instant Messenger.
“He was so cute,” says Rachel, now 25 and marketing manager for the family business, Best Dental Studio. “And he was a nice Jewish boy from Pikesville.”
They joke today that Rachel “wore him down” and they became friends. It took a few months, but Jared started to “appreciate her presence.”
“I realized she was really special,” says Jared, 26, an attorney for the Social Security Administration.
While home one weekend in April 2007, they went to the McDonald’s in Reisterstown and joke today that it was their first date. Within a month, their relationship grew serious, and they professed their love.
That summer, they spent their free time together, enjoying movies, dining out, visiting the National Aquarium and reflecting on their similar upbringings and complete compatibility.
Their fate was sealed in January 2008, when both traveled to Germany for a semester abroad. Within two days, Rachel fell ill. Jared “stepped up to the plate” and figured out the bus system and got Rachel to a doctor.
“I had a terrible fever,” she recalls. “Jared totally took care of me. He was definitely husband material.”
They planned to be there a month, but when Rachel called her doctor, she learned the German physician had prescribed medicine not legal in the U.S. Her doctor advised her to return home immediately.
After five days, the couple was back in Baltimore, but their future was set.
“I knew I loved her, and I wanted to take care of her,” says Jared.
After a stressful summer of law school and grad school graduations, moving back to Baltimore and starting new jobs, they married on Sept. 2, 2012 at the Peabody Library with Rabbi Yerachmiel Shapiro of Moses Montefiore Anshe Emunah Congregation officiating.
“Now we are just enjoying things,” says Jared. “We are enjoying being newlyweds.”
Linda L. Esterson is an Owings Mills-based freelance writer. For “Beshert,” call 410-902-2305 or email Linda.Esterson@verizon.net.
