Life is the most precious gift from God

First of all, I’d like to share my love story on how did I meet my partner's in life. Well, I met my husband on the internet nearly 11 years ago, He is from New York City and I am from Davao City Philippines. I was 21 year-old when I met him, and he was 36 years old, that was 28th of November 2001.Way back in August 2001 our landlady’s daughter had given us penpal forms because she had a lot of it. She distributed to her boarders which was my sister, my roommate and myself. We were three filling up the forms and attached a picture to it, while we filled the forms up we were having fun, our landlady said to us ,I wonder if who's the luckiest one who’ll get a response first? Then we replied altogether of course I am the first one. LOL. And then I mailed the forms out.

And back to our daily routines, business as usual. At the time I was working in an appliances center called " Love Bargain Bazaar" in San Pedro Davao City as a sales clerk. It was my very first job. After that, I also worked as a Cosmetics Promodiser. Sometimes I enjoyed my job and sometimes I don’t. I had met many different people, different characters.
But anyway to make my story short, after 3 months since I mailed my penpal form, I’ve met my ideal man. He told me the story on how he found me. He has Filipino friend who introduced him about meeting women in the Philippines. Because he was getting tired of searching a woman in his country who he could trusted for, because mostly some women they ended upto no good . He didn't had luck of finding one in his country. He had been single for over 20 years since he got divorced from his previous marriage.

Since then, he’d never trusted women again. He had intensed bad experienced in the past. So his filipino friend told him why don’t you try finding women in my country? and also his American male best friend encouraging him to find online dating, from that point on it gives him an idea, so he gave it a try. He started visiting different websites browsing it and finally he found the Filipina penpal club website and he found my profile through their website. He was very interested on my profile , he really liked my picture I attached to it. Which the picture

that I didn’t really like. But anyway, after he was browsing quite a few pages on the website, he saw my profile in there, he said that my picture caught in his eyes.

According to him I was stunning amongst the other women in that website, he found me exotic beauty on my picture (which is not true, as you can see this picture I attached to it here.). ROFL. From then on, he contacted right away the Filipina penpal club’s office on how to get my full contact address and my mobile phone number. Because the Agency never put my full contact information in the profile because that’s how their policy. Then the agency said to him in order for you to get her full information you have to get another five ladies (profiles) from this website. So he did it eventhough he was not interested with them but he had to, because it’s really required. When he got all the addresses , he only selected mine and the rest of it he threw it away. Poor them! LOL. As soon as he got my address, he never wasted time.He wrote me with a nice letter and including a free postage. (Naniguro jud ba!) so I didn’t have to worry about paying to mail him back.

He also called up the agency to remove my profile in their sytem. Because if he won’t do it, I might be getting some letters from different men . Yeah! He wasn’t wrong because after a week I received one letter from a man in Hawaii and also he encluded funds for postage but I kept the funds for souviner and I never replied to his letter.

When I got Ronald’s very first letter I was so delighted it seemed like there's something very special about it, that I couldn’t explained. He introduced himself and he attached pictures of him and his parents in his very first letter. With that! it’s a big factor for me. I could tell he is close-knit to his family, and in the back of my mind while I was reading his letter I'd say that this guy has a good heart and family oriented.The way he expressed his message in his letter. That’s what I like for a guy who is a family oriented and that is one of my preferences. For me, it is important for my partner who is a family oriented coz I have such a large family. That’s why I had no doubts of replying his letter back. I got his letter November 28.2001 and I mailed my replied to his letter December 15, 2001. My respond to his letter took so long to reach him because of the mailing system there in PH back then was very slow.

When he got my very first respond ,he was very happy and grateful for having someone like me, he said. A person who won’t turn away from him, he told me that I’m the only girl made him trust again. And he said to me that I could always have his trust. He is hoping that he could have my trust and sincerity as well. He’s telling me a person like myself in his country is very hard to come by. He had learned from his experiences. There were times when he’d asked the Lord for a woman with a beautiful heart, well, he feel the Lord gave him this woman, and that is ME, he said. I was so flattered for those words came out from his mouth.

After he received my first mail , he wrote me back right away and mailed it out as fast as he could do. I received it within 3 days. At the time I wasn't a computer geek as I am now . I mean I really didn’t know how to use computer 9 years ago,I'm afraid of computer keyboards (hehehe!!!). That’s why we had to be patient to use the old fashion way which was writing a letter. If I should’ve known before on how to use a computer, it would’ve been very convenient for both of us to communicate each other. But anyway I have never regretted because it works for us smoothly.

In my 2nd letter I gave him my sister’s cellpone number coz I’ve never had a cellphone then. He called up my sister’s number right away . He spoke to my sister Vergie asking about me but at the time I wasn’t home so my sister told him to call me in the weekend. When I got home my sister told me that your pal called and his going to call you again on the weekend.OMG! when I knew that he’s going to call me I had butterflies on my stomach.

I’m excited but nervous at the same time. I’m excited because I could hear him but nervous because I couldn’t speak English well at the time. When the weekend came he really called and we spoke each other for the very first time and when I heard his voice it was like an angel whispering in my ears he is soft spoken and he felt the same way. Bare in mind, I was talking to him with my broken English. But I’m glad because he’s willing to understand what I was really trying to say. In the back of my head I had a lot of questions I wanna ask him but I couldn’t express it. But he told me almost everything about him anyway.

From that moment I knew I was in love and I knew this because I’ve never had that feelings before. We seemingly in love each other right away. Since then we communicated through phone calls constantly, letters and text messages everyday. We greeted each other "Hi mahal ko" it means "Hi my love" . And I never had to worry about phone cards because he always provided me.

I remembered the beginning of our communications he purchased phone cards worth P10,000 pesos, about 20 pieces cards, each one of it costs P500 pesos. I only used it for text. I never had to call him because he always calls me. I totaled all his phone cards that he used to communicate me, from the very beginning till the end that I was in the Philippines (2006) for 4 years communications it's cost him more than a hundred thousand pesos which is $2,000+ US dollars. But back then the currency was high, $1 US dollar convert to Philippine money it was P56 pesos. It costs him a lot for the phone cards because he always tracking me down. (It's his fault. Just kidding)Which I like it too. It would never pasts the day without texting or calling each other, except when there's technical problem. My day wasn't complete without his text.

I won’t never forget the day that he surprises me by proposing to marry over the phone, it was my 22nd birthday , Ten months since we had known to each other. In the morning of September 12,2002 I received flowers delivery in our boarding house, two dozens of big beautiful red roses with Godiva chocolates and birthday card.

He ordered it from Manila and have them delivered to Davao, he didn’t care if how much would it costs him,as long as the package get to Davao with the same beautiful condition. He paid extra handling surcharged. Surprisingly, I also received another separate package personally from him it contained a lot of stuffs but one of the contains in the package is personalized gold necklace with pendant which our both faces is in the pendant. Even though we had not seen each other's yet but it seems like we’ve already met in person because of our both images is in the pendant. No one would've thought that we hadn't seen each other yet because when they looked at the pendant we really both in there.

But anyway on that very the same day around 4:00pm he called me up and I thought it was just a simple calls just to greet my birthday but I was dead wrong. Yeah, he greeted me happy birthday of course and the longer we talked over the phone I noticed something ,he seemed like there’s something bothering in his mind. He had something to tell me, but he didn’t know how to begin with, but he finally telling me about he wants to marry me.He proposed me in tagalog language because his Filipino co-workers taught him, and he’s been practicing for that words for awhile. I remembered when he said to me Reignheart"PAKASALAN MO BA AKO?" it means "WILL YOU MARRY ME? I said to him, what? please tell me again? cause I didn’t hear it so clearly. And also I was just making sure if I heard it right coz you know he has English accent. I heard him mumbling the words. And he said it again Reignheart "PAKASALAN MO BA AKO?" Uh! Uhmmm I got you. I was kind of choking on my own soliva when I heard him proposing me. I was sweating all over my body, I had cold feet and my knees was shaking. I've never expected him to propose me so soon. I wasn’t prepared for it. I didn’t know what to say. I said to him could you please call me back later? coz I need to think about it, but actually I had to talk to my parents first before I decided. Then I hang up the phone on him.

After I've spoken to him I came closer to my mother in the kitchen she’s with my cousin preparing food for my birthday. Then I dragged my mom secretly so my cousin won’t notice us nor hear us. My mother asked me if I am alright coz she looked at me like there’s something wrong with me, she was just wondering coz I’m so quite for awhile sitting next to her. Then I told my mother about Ronald’s proposal, and I asked my mother if should I marry him? My mother said If you love him, why not? go for it coz I know how sincere he is to you and I have no doubts about his feeling's for you. Whatever makes you happy ,your father and I we’ll be here to support you. My father wasn’t there at the time because he was left in the province, only my mom went to the City to visit us. That’s why I only talked my mom. But they both approved it. Because they have trusted Ron already.

Then an hour had past after I finished talking to my mother the phone was ringing again, it’s him to follow up about we discussed earlier. When I said "Uh umm..." yes I will marry you. He was very happy and thankful ,and do you know something? He kissed me for the first time over the phone and I was blown away. He had tearful eyes and so am I. It was tears of joy. Although we hadn’t seen each other’s yet but we shared the same emotions. In that moment we were both floating on cloud nine(Wheeww). He told me that he's going to fly to the Philippines to meet me in person.

But before he decided to go to the Philippines, he did some research. And also he met my aunt in San Francisco California which is my aunt who lives in Chicago Illinois now. I told him that I have aunt there and I gave him her email address. He emailed my aunt and he introduced himself that he is my boyfriend. From then on they became a very good friends.He decided to meet my aunt's first, so he flew from New York to San Francisco California just to meet my aunt, they met first before me. He asked some more information about me. And later that year, he also met my uncle in Chicago. He was just arrived in Chicago from Uganda.

I still remembered on 23rd of July 2003 he visited the Philippines for the first time to meet me in person and it was the most exciting moment for me to see him in person. When he came out the airport, he so thumb because he’s tall that’s why I saw him right away .My friends, my siblings, my uncle and I were there outside the airport waiting for him and they’re ganging up on me, they teased me so much. They were very excited too and they wanted to witness us meeting in person for the first time. When Ronald walking towards us I was blushing and shy, the same thing with him, he was sweating bullet and he couldn’t looked straight to my eyes and so do I. But we held each other’s hands anyway, like we’ve seen each other before. Maybe we felt true love so it didn't matter anymore. My uncle took him to his mother-in-laws' house to stay there while Ron was in the Philippines and I stayed in my uncle's house. We're 2 miles away. We had only seen each other during the day. I'm sorry to tell but my parents are strict. I am an old fashion filipino way, you cannot sleep together unless you are married.That's how I brought up. (Ang higpit noh?).I'm glad because he understands, he says it's similar culture also in his country Puerto Rico back then.

Anyway, we officially engaged on July 29th 0f 2003. And it was a big celebration. My family and relatives from the province came over to Davao just to witness to our engagement. And the following year we got married in November 10,2004. That was my happiest moment in my life marrying a person who I really love. It was my dreamed wedding.
It's been 7 years since my sweetie and I were waiting, finally our long waits it ends. People say long distance relationship it doesn't work, "but here we are" proving to the people that it works indeed!! It takes so much patience, love, understanding, trust and most of all prayers. Because without prayers were not gonna make it. It is not easy to have a long distance relationship, this is true, but the best thing we did always was have faith to each other. And now, here we are very happy in our marriage. I left my family for good reasons, not bad ones. I'm happy but sad at the same time, happy because I'm with my hubby and sad cause I'm far away from my family. We’ve been married for over 7 years now,present.

Long distance relationship it really works for us by the help of our Almighty God without Him we didn’t know if we made it. Love and Trust are major necessities if you wish to have your relationship from a distance. Without Love , trust and honesty, the relationship is in for danger and unsuccessfulness, just as it would be any other relationship. By accepting the challenge of a long distance relationship, you also accepted the fact that you will have to have trust and faith that your partner will not be seeing anyone else as promised. Being paranoid and accusing will only grow doubts, insecurity and tension between you and none of those three will help the relationship survive successfully. I know that some people won’t believe in long distance relationship. They believe the sayings"OUT OF SIGHT OUT OF MIND". Hehehe. Anyways not all long distance relationship works. That's the way it is.

Well folks that is a little about me. In a few more years this story will have plenty added to it for, but right now that is my love story. Thank you for your precious time reading my story. I really appreciate it.