Our Story Part 1

October 12, 2006

If you had told me five years ago that I would be in a relationship with a man like A, I would not have believed it to be true.

The oddest thing about our story is the way we met. I had put a message on a message board asking for help to learn Spanish and in return, I would help teach somebody English. He responded.

Actually, I needed more help with my Spanish than he did with his English. He had already lived in Boston as a boy with a family as an exchange student. He did not know much English at that time and he had to learn by being thrown into the environment. I only helped him a little with some pronunciation and he has had to teach me everything, the alphabet, pronunciation, verbs. He is still teaching me Spanish.

Over time we started talking, sending a lot of emails, having long chat sessions, telephone conversations, and then later web camera and chat sessions. We learned a lot about each other. I liked him more and more. There was something about the way he viewed the world. He opened me up to new ideas and made me realize that the distance between us didn't matter, as long as we loved each other and stayed devoted and kept contact as much as we could.

At that time, he lived in Chile and I lived here in Alabama. We both enjoyed photography so we shared our days through pictures. I showed him where I lived, special people in my life, with pictures and with little videos. He did the same for me. I saw the beauty of Chile in his pictures and I felt very close to him when I looked at his pictures.

One of my favorite things for him to do was to set up his web camera and notebook and take it out to the back terrace and show me the parrots in the trees, the flowers, and his dogs. Of course, I loved seeing him too, any chance I got! I liked his smile and to hear his laughter.

No matter how much I heard people talk around me that he was in another country, how could we love each other? I just ignored them because I knew in my heart, that I couldn't have loved him more, even if he had been right here in Alabama. That love grew and when we did meet in person, we hit it off perfectly, just as we always had by telephone, by internet chats and webcam sessions.

I have to admit, the first time I met him, I was so nervous! I had all of these concerns which proved to be just a bad case of the nerves. I remember telling my sister on the telephone, What if he does not like me as much as he thinks he does after he gets here? All I can say is I was excited but also, thinking of a million things that might go wrong. Well, I WAS WRONG! Thank goodness!

The day I met A for the first time was also the same day my nephew was born. What a happy day it was, meeting the man I love for the first time and seeing my newborn nephew!

To be continued...