Our Story Part 2

October 14, 2006

One fun part of our long distance relationship was sending letters and packages back and forth. He would send me Chilean (cafe) coffee, candy, and all kinds of fun things. One package he sent me a bottle of Chilean wine and a book by my favorite author and a natural quartz crystal from the mountains in Chile. Nobody had ever sent me a bottle of wine before or cared enough to even remember what my favorite author was... Another very special gift was an alpaca poncho to keep me warm in the winter. I always get cold in the winter. One year for Christmas he surprised me and sent me a digital camera! The dial had broke on my digital camera.

His first visit:

I arrived before dark in the early morning hours at Atlanta International Airport in Georgia to pick A up on his first trip to Alabama. I did a bit of worrying and some frantic rounds around the airport before I finally saw him. He explained later what had happened. He was actually put in the security orange room because when they asked him his return flight date he honestly could not remember the actual date. Welcome to the USA via the orange security room, right?

He had mistakenly got his Mom's tickets to Argentina instead of his own return flight tickets. Imagine A's surprise when he reaches in his bag to show them his tickets and they are his Mom's tickets instead. (Mierda!) He was honest with them and after some verification they let him through.

We stayed busy going places the whole time he was here. We had a lot of fun and sadly, the time flew by. We took a trip to Biloxi, Mississippi (before the hurricane did so much damage there.) We gambled and got free drinks, had lazy sleep in mornings and enjoyed the view of the sandy beaches and water. He was so caring and loving and he made me laugh a lot. I was on cloud nine!

My sister gave me an early birthday gift of a hotel room for Armando and I in Birmingham. That was so sweet of her and her husband. We got a bottle of Chilean wine and sushi and just relaxed. Later we went to the Science Museum with my sister and niece and nephew. We also went to the Birmingham zoo. We both love animals so it was fun.

On the day A had to return to Chile, I tried hard to be strong and not show sadness but I found myself tearing up on the drive to the airport. I was going to miss him a lot. On the drive back to Alabama, I cried and got upset and then resolved to try and be strong and focus on the day he was to return to live here.

Our plan was for him to return to Chile and finish his classes so he could get his degree and then he would move here and I needed to find a job that had health insurance. We knew it would take some time for us to go through the immigration process and marry but the most important thing was the love that we have for each other. We can work through the rest.

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...