All the way from Africa to North America

Life's journey is sometimes totally unpredictable! I am a South African and my husband is American. We met online, fell in love, and our lives changed completely. We were both in secure jobs, had our lives in our different cultures, and we were certainly not looking for romance! 

We 'met' one night when my husband read my profile and saw that I had a keen interest in photograpraphy. He messaged me, introduced himself to me, and from there we started chatting. We did not chat regularly at first - as I said, we were not looking for romance, merely friendship across the miles - but as I got to know him better, I eagerly looked out for him on AOL instant messenger every time I went online. He was such a great listener, came across as such a warm person, someone that I could literally chat to for hours, log off the computer and think of a dozen things that I still wanted to share with him! 

We started chatting on the phone and soon our phone conversations replaced our internet chats. His voice was incredible and his chuckle infectious. We would chat up to ten hours on the phone on a Saturday and Sunday and share meals with each other - he would have breakfast while I had lunch, all the while chatting away. I put together a list of more than 700 questions that we asked each other over the course of six months, a period in which our relationship was deepening. We got to know each other really well and I believe by the time we eventually met in person in New York, we knew each other better than most people do after a 20-year marriage. 

He surprised me with a return ticket from Johannesburg to New York. We spent the most incredible three weeks together. Was it perfect? No. But as close to perfect as we could ever come. He met me at the airport in his Navy uniform (he was a Navy officer at the time), but with or without his uniform, I would have recognized him in a crowd of a thousand people. I remember the anticipation on the flight when my plane came in to land: excitement tinged with apprehension of the unknown. I walked into the international arrival terminal, saw him, my heart overturned, and I walked straight into his arms. For the first time in my life I felt I was at home emotionally, physically, and spiritually. This man truly was my soulmate and thanks to the Internet we found each other. I returned to South Africa, packed up my life, and bade farewell to my culture, my family, my friends, to life as I knew it for so many years. 

That was several years ago. Today we live in Texas, we've been through the INS papermill, I became a US citizen this year, we've successfully combined our lives, and we are happier than we ever thought possible. We've been through a lot - packing up and moving to another country to be with someone is one of the most difficult journeys anyone can undertake - but we are proof that it can happen and eventually have a fairytale ending.