At 4:30 am on April 1, 2012, we landed in Santiago, Chile.
Hold on!
Not just yet!
We had to wait about 45 minutes for our luggage, which was last to come out, go through Customs, get our visas, and then have Veda's paperwork checked out.
Okay.
Now!
We walked through the doors and we just ran to each other! We kissed. His parents were there welcoming my parents and I. My mom was crying, I think, haha.
And get this!
When Felipe went to give Veda a kiss in her little travel bag... she bit his nose!!!
Luckily she's an old Chihuahua with barely any teeth.
My parents stayed for a week in a nice hotel and we met up with them everyday (of course) to do random touristy things which were pretty fun.
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| The first picture we took together. |
I could not have been more happy to be with him. It was so surreal being able to not just fel his energy, but feel his body.(Don't take that in an XXX way, please! I'm talking hugs and kisses!) We couldn't get enough of each other. I just wanted to hold him forever. We waited 7 months, although it seemed like for fuh-reaking ever for that. To finally be together.
Everyone was cheering us on. We had a lot of mutual friends on Facebook who we met through our love of Incubus, and almost all of them were with us from the beginning and that really gave us a lot of hope and encouragement. We had a few people saying that we were stupid for thinking it would actually work out, but I never paid attention to them. Neither did he. Our personalities just meshed. We went together like PB & J!
After the first week of me being in Santiago, Felipe had to resume his classes. I didn't know what to do while he was there, really, and soon I realized that I probably won't adapt too well. Which... I haven't. Everything about this culture was different than what I knew.
EVERYTHING. Sometimes I'd get really homesick and
Felipe was soooo good at comforting me.
We just had a blast together. We both love movies, so sometimes I'd meet him at the metro and we'd go to the movies. We'd just sorta hang out at the house since we didn't have much money to do anything else. It was just bliss to be around each other and not do anything in particular. We just had fun. We'd watch TV or go for walks or do whatever.
About a month after I got to Chile, his family had the idea to take a weekend trip to their beach house in Los Molles, which was about 2 1/2 hours away. It was such a beautiful place! So peaceful and quiet and... cold? I had no idea it would be cold and I was so excited to swim! We went down to the beach and got in the water fo 2 seconds. FUH-REEZING! I have no idea what we were thinking, but it was really fun!
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| Yes, yes... very cheesy! But fun! |
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| Los Molles... the Pacific coast of Chile. |
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| He gets home makeovers with me :-) |
We were just living in bliss! Everyone we knew was happy for us. My parents LOVED him which really meant a lot to me because I've dated a lot of losers who they hated. It was nice for them to like someone a lot. And it was really refreshing to be with someone who was my age, who was smart, funny, very humble, a bit antisocial like me, and a little strange. He was just the bees knees to me. And still is!! Of course we'd have our arguments, usually caused by misunderstanding because the culture is very very different in Chile, so when someone would say something to me that I didn't understand the context of or someone would refer to me as a ''gringa'', I'd turn my head quickly like, ''what the hell???'' But otherwise, we had an amazing relationship. We had a lot of fun together.
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| The little blue ring! |
Felipe asked me to marry him.
Well... it was sort of a mutual thing, but to make it romantic, he got me a cheap ring at a flea market that I will never ever EVER trade in for a more elaborate, expensive one, even if we're millionaires, and a week later he asked me when we went for a weekend trip to the Andes mountains. It was a beautiful scene. As we walked back from a little bodega, he got on one knee and asked me. The sun was on its way to hiding behind the mountains. It was just very lovely.
During our wedding planning, I got a bit nutty. I didn't become a bridezilla or anything, BUT it was a bit frustrating at times because I didn't know much Spanish and I don't think that his family understood how much I am into symbolism. For example, I wanted certain flowers because in my religion, they meant such and such. Or I wanted to get married on a certain date because signified this. Everyone apparently thought it was weird that I wasn't wearing a white dress. I don't like white. I found a gorgeous green dress that reminded me of fairies. I got those barefoot sandal things. I am an all natural type of girl, nothing fancy or extravagant. We're down to Earth people, I wanted a down to Earth wedding. We intially planned to have the wedding at his family's house because we didn't have like... any money. At all. His mom was pushing for us to find an event area to have it, so we searched for about a month and when we were about to give up completely, we found the perfect place!
We had planned only for his family (which is pretty big) and very few of our friends to attend. I didn't think my family could come and we were very upset about that. But the show must go on, right?
A few days after we put a deposit on the place, we were video chatting with my parents and my mom said she had a surprise for us. My brain was fried from planning this thing, I had no idea what it could beand I didn't have the energy to guess.
They were coming to the wedding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yay!!!!!!
My dad said that it wasn't right for a father not to walk his daughter down the isle at her wedding. We were so happy! I think I even cried!
We became really busy once we were a month away from the wedding. Everyday we were doing something related to it. It seemed like there was so much crap to do and there was only 40 people coming!
My parents got to Santiago on a Thursday. We hung out with them all day Thursday and Friday. I remember on Friday we were supposed to meet my parents at their hotel for a couples massage at 12 or 12:30 or something. We got to their hotel around 11 or so and the wedding coordinator called Felipe and asked how many hours for the DJ would we want since we only paid for a certain amount. He said that we'd probably need about 2-3 more hours since everyone would stay there after we left. She said we had to pay for that right then and there. How they do it in Chile is you have to go to the bank (of the person you're dealing with) and deposit the money into their account. They don't do credit cards or anything. So we went to my parents' hotel room, the safe wouldn't work and my dad started kinda of yelling at it which made Felipe nervous, hahaha. We got the extra money, walked about 5 minutes to the nearest bank. Of course they didn't take American money. We walked to a mall, navigated our way to the money exchange place, then back to the bank. By this time it was like 8 minutes until our massage and for some reason I had it in my head that if e weren't there ON TIME, they'd say we couldn't get the massages, which is something that I NEEDED. I was so stressed out from well, many things.
So we are like running back to the hotel, we bust in the front doors, I saw my mom standing in the lobby and I started to cry. I don't really remember why, but I just felt like I needed massage. (Being a massage therapist, I know the benefits of it!)
We finally got to the spa area, which was really neat! We got into our bathrobes and sat in these comfy chairs while we got our feet bathed with hot water. Then our massages were really great! After the massage, they sat us in this relaxing area, kind of like a waiting room but a luxury waiting room with reclining bamboo chairs, and then they brought us hot tea and a big plate or gourmet chocolates.... which of course, we ate all of!
We hung out with my parents until it was getting a bit late and since the wedding was the next day, we wanted to get plenty of sleep. There was some kind of road construction and we ended up spending 2 hours in the taxi! Which was fine, we got a lot of talking done and we were so excited about the wedding. I was very sad that my brother couldn't come, but he had to work and I understood that. He was there in spirit!
Saturday, September 8, 2012...
I became the wife of my best friend, my soulmate.
Everyone was having fun, dancing, taking pictures, eating DELICIOUS food, drinking, talking, joking, hugging. It was just... an amazing day. Very awesome.
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| My mom and I are really close, I was happy that she could make it! |
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| My dad walking me down the isle! |
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| Our best friends cake. |
Disclaimer: Please excuse the random placement of the pictures, I still haven't really gotten the hang of this yet :-)
We were so happy with our wedding day. For our honeymoon, it was more of a wedding night. My parents paid for a room in the hotel where they were staying. We ordered tons of room service since we didn't stuff our faces at the wedding. We had a lot of fun (if ya know what I mean, wink wink)! The next day we went to the pool at the hotel, which was freezing but it was fun to hang out by. We spent the day with my parents at a mall. It was really great and comforting to just hang out with them. I really missed them a lot. The day after that they left and it was also my mom's birthday. I didn't see her that day to give her a hug, tell her happy birthday, and that I love her since they left at like 3am or some crazy time.
Since the wedding, we've had a wonderful first year of marriage. We are so happy together! In maybe..... late November or early December we decided that we wanted to move to the US for a better life. In January we started the process of the CR-1 visa. Since then, it's been a pain in the ass. But we are grateful that my parents are helping a lot. Without them, we wouldn't be able to do this. So Felipe got a job in the summer (March-ish) and worked until mid-July until the doctor told him he had to stop because the work was messing up his shoulder. And we've just been waiting to hear any news from the National Visa Center, since we are very close to the end of the visa process. We're hoping to be in the US to start that life by October of this year. Keep your fingers crossed for us, please!!!!
We aren't thinking of kids anytime soon..maybe when we're 30 and our shit together, haha. But we do have names picked out! We are hoping for a girl first, who we will name Isadore Arabella. If we have a second girl, her name will be Esmeralda Valhalla. Our first boy will be Emile Franco, and if we have another boy, he will be named Heath Brandon. We're excited for kids, for our own little family, but we want our own house, Felipe wants to finish his education and get a job as a teacher, I want to have my own business established. And we want our small farm! We want kids, but we also want to be responsible!
A lot of people who know us have been inspired by our story. We want it to get out because we want everyone to know that love is real! Think about it: A chick from Pennsylvania. A guy from Santiago. A simple hello on Facebook chat sparks a true love. I would not move to another country, not knowing the language, changing MY lifestyle, dragging my old Chihuahua, leaving my two jobs... for just anyone. He is THE one. And I love him with all my heart and soul. We have our differences but that is what makes us so strong.
I finally found my missing puzzle piece.
I finally found my weirdo.
I finally found my other half.
He completes me.
I complete him.
This is our story.
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| New Year's 2013! |
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| A day at the park! |
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| Stone Sour concert! |
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| 3 days after my 26th birthday. |
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