My husband and I have been married since October 4, 2014 after meeting on ChristianMingle a year and a half earlier. We both weren’t really sure how it happened as he was living in Washington State and I was living 16 hours away in Northern British Columbia, Canada. We had both specified wanting to meet someone within only a few miles of where we each lived, yet somehow we were both brought to the profiles of someone in a completely different country! (And there have sure been a ton of difficulties, complications and heart aches along the way). In February 2013, my now husband sent me a message on a total whim and was surprised when he received a lengthy message back from me!
From that point on, we began sending long messages non-stop for about a month. James had mentioned how he was looking forward to meeting at some point, so maybe that was what struck a bit of a chord of uncertainty in me. After a great month of enjoying getting to know each other, the conversation dropped to nothing when I began dating someone in my area after being consumed by fears of meeting a complete stranger from a different country who might be someone completely different. I had doubts that we would ever actually meet, and also, I had been let down by online “dating” sites so many times before, so skepticism definitely won out. Once I began dating the other guy, James and I stopped talking.
Through Facebook, he messaged me, hurt one night. I took offence and blocked and deleted him all together, thus cutting off all and any communication completely. I dated the other guy for about a month and a half, and it was horrible. I missed James and felt more alone than ever before. It seemed like things just kept going from bad to worse.
On my birthday (although we still were not talking), James mailed me a card and a pair of shamrock earrings (we had always sent four leaf clovers in our messages wishing each other the best). About two months after we had lost touch, in the early summer, James had been out sailing on the ocean with a few friends of his and they were caught up in a bad storm. He thought was going to die as the storm kept getting worse, so he prayed to God to get him through. He later told me that he thought to himself, that he was not going to die, because he hadn’t met me yet. James sailed the boat into the only nearby island and crashed it there, and him and his friends were able to take refuge inside the lighthouse and call for help from the Sheriff.
That same night, I felt very hurt and alone as I finally broke it off with my boyfriend at the time. I remember driving down the street in tears and looking over after hearing my phone receive a text. I immediately thought it was my ex texting to apologize, but was very surprised to see it was from James telling me he had to talk to me after what had happened. He had no idea I was no longer with my now ex-boyfriend; no one did yet.
From that point on, we began slowly talking again, although I felt horrible for all I had put him through. He later told me he had planted three roses when we were not talking, because he had been told “if you can grow a plant, you can grow a relationship.” He told me it had given him hope when one of the three roses began to bloom. Finally, we made plans to meet. James booked a flight at the end of August and came up to Terrace, BC where I was living and we met face to face. He also brought the rose he had grown that he had dried in his bible. From the point on, we talked more than ever, began “officially” dating, and I made the trip to Washington State to visit him for Thanksgiving and meet his family.
I visited again in April 2014 and finally quit my job in June so I would be able to spend the whole summer visiting rather than just a week at a time every four months. I hoped to get a job easily, but that never happened. The end of summer came and we went on a whim to talk to an immigration lawyer, and were told the only way I could stay would be if we were married. We knew already that we wanted to marry one day, so we made a decision. Two weeks later were married!
I have been living in the U.S. ever since. Due to Homeland Security issues, we weren’t allowed to announce anything about a marriage until after the fact, surprising a lot of family. So naturally, we had to plan an additional wedding to include all of our family and friends. The following year on July 25, 2015 we had our renewal of vows wedding ceremony with all of our family and friends. So much has happened within the past three years that it’s hard to believe it’s only been that long. In spite of what seems like never-ending complications and bumps in the road, we have gotten to where we are now with faith. Thank you ChristianMingle for bringing me to know my husband and love of my life!
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