Marjeta

Happy belated B-Day Matt! I enjoyed reading your stories, but I have to contribute my own 2 cents :

Me and my husband met in a Microsoft chatroom 5 years ago, back when these chats were a little more civilized. We shared our private thoughts and had a very deep connection, but we led separate lives in RL and never thought we could realisticly be together due to the distance between us. He joined the US Navy and we kept in touch on and off for 2 years via chat and e-mail, up until one day he persuaded me to meet in person during a close port. That was one of the greatest days in our lives and it just proved that we were meant for each other. After we met and later on spent more time with one another no step was too big or too hard to reach our goal to be together.
Close to our 1yr anniversay now. BTW - how do you celebrate that?

P.S. I hope you are wrong about George W. and I hope the ballots work next time.

Matthew Udall

Thank you Marjeta (and everybody else).

As far as how to celebrate the 1st anniversary, there is a list out there that describes various types of gifts that are appropriate for each year. For example, I believe the 25th anniversary is the Golden and the 50th the Diamond (but I could very well be wrong about that... perhaps the 25th is Silver and the 50th Golden).

I started following that list when I married the lovely Lisa. The first anniversary on my particular list was the "paper" anniversary, so on our anniversary (10/16) in addition to taking Lisa to our favorite restaurant, flowers, etc., I wrote her a song called, "Good night, Lisa" (on paper) and played it for her later that evening. She seemed to like it very much.

Mattias Hembruch

In article <[email protected]>,
Chessiet <member@british_expats.com> wrote:
    >After browsing through this board, I've become fascinated with how all
    >these far-flung romances started. I know some people used the Internet,
    >some were from vacations, or through the military, etc...

Had been trying the internet dating thing for a while, had met a bunch of
girls, most quite nice, but just not "for me".

Had almost given up, when someone wrote to ME (instead of me having to
strike up the conversation) via www.christiandate.com. This was Dec 8, 2002.

She seemed pretty cool (my userid was vw_fan and she said she liked VWs),
cute, etc.

Except for the fact that I'm in Ontario, Canada, and she's in the Bay Area
in California.

We chatted for a bit about life, etc.. Started becoming friends more than
being romantically involved - both of us kept saying nothing would ever
happen because of the distance.

So, I told her about a couple of girls I was chatting with locally, talked
to her about my initial "dates" with them, etc.

When I said I thought I might be interested in person XYZ, she realized how
jealous it made her feel, and so she called and told me that I was going to
visit her in California (we had jokingly talked about it) during my "reading
week" (I work here at UW) in February, and she would come visit Canada in
April (assuming we hadn't gotten tired of each other yet). No, I did NOT
have a choice :-)

So, I visited sunny California in February 2003, and left my heart in San
Francisco. I quickly realized that, 2500 miles or not, I had to give "us" a
serious shot and she felt the same.

Fast forward to September 23, 2003 (after she visited here in June and
August, and we did a 5000+ mile roadtrip together in August, etc), and I
arrived in the Bay Area a day earlier than I had told her, got her principal
(she teaches grade 2) to get her to come out of her classroom and I got down
on one knee and proposed right there. Totally surprised her to the point of
being speechless :-)

We're now planning a mid/late July 2004 wedding, subject to my K1 (via CSC)
happening in time - hopefully will be submitted end of this week.

Mattias

Jaque_n_mohammed

My name is Jaque and I live near Chicago. I was chatting in Yahoo with
a man from Jordan. He was using an internet cafe. We had been chatting
about general things for about a month and one Sunday morning he had
his cam on and I turned mine on too.

The owner of the cafe walked behind him and I said 'Who is that!' and
at the same time, the owner, saw me on his customers screen and said
to him 'Who is that!'....lol,,,,well, do you believe in love at first
sight? I do now !! The first day we chatted for 6 hours. Within 3
months I was flying to Jordan to marry Mohammed. He still owns the
cafe while we wait for approval.

I returned to start the paperwork and it has been a nightmare from
hell. I thought a lawyer would make it more organized and
professional....I was WRONG. It was filed to the wrong place, and now
5 months later, I have no idea where we stand. Lawyer is trying to
track our paperwork. It is difficult, but will not weaken our love or
marriage.

I just returned from Jordan where we had 10 days together to celebrate
our 1st anniversary. Hopefully, near the end of the year, the K3 will
be complete.
I love all your stories
Jaque-n-Mohammed
1st NOA I130 March 18, 2003
2nd NOA I129F April 18,2003
hmmmmmmm I have no clue if we are in NSC, CHI, or MIS

Noorah101

Just wanted to say a very Happy Belated Birthday to Matt Udall....thank you for all you do on the newsgroup, your efforts are very much appreciated!

Also, I think it's neat how almost everyone on this thread became "friends first" and then developed a romance. The distance forces you to do that. You can't be around each other 24/7 to have the "lust" side of the relationship going, so you have to spend all that time talking and becoming best friends. And then to have the romance and attraction there as well....that's just the icing on the cake! :-)

This has been a very uplifting thread for me today, I love hearing romantic stories... thanks everyone!

Rene

jcapulet

Cory and I met on an online RP game called "Vampire: the Masquerade Redemption" on September 22, 2000.

I entered a mutual "virtual" friend's game, where Cory was, and he said hello to me for the first time. I walked my character over to where he was standing and said hello back. Then he said "It's a little bit funny...this feeling inside..." and I said "what are you doing?" and he said he was singing "Your Song" to me. (...and he sang "Your Song" to me at our wedding reception ) We talked and talked, and exchanged e-mails.

He sent me an e-mail the next day saying he was just checking to see if the e-mail worked and that he enjoyed our time together. I almost didn't reply. He sent another one the next day wondering if I would answer. I thought oh why not...and sent a message back. A few days later I met him online again in the same game, and every night after we met online and found out how much we had in common, and we shared our souls and became wonderful friends. Even from the beginning, it was a mutual romantic interest, as well as the desire for the beautiful friendship we felt growing each day.

Eventually, we went to the next step of chatting on Yahoo messenger, and soon voice chat (we were so nervous at first). Soon it became phone calls. It was unmistakable what we felt for each other, and we wanted to meet in person. So, I bought plane tickets to Calgary for Jan. 4 through Jan. 8 (despite lack of support from family and friends, but they were concerned because they care about me).

We met in Calgary at the Glenbow Museum at about 5:00 in the Egyptian Exhibit. I arrived a little early, and was wandering around the exhibit trying to act like I was looking at the miniature pyramids. I thought I heard someone behind me, and waited. I didn't hear anyone, so I continued observing the most interesting little pyramid. Then, I felt a light tap on my shoulder and turned around and it was Cory. Smiles, hugs and a kiss...at last we were together.

Those few days were wonderful, and we were both crying like babies at the airport when I had to fly back. We visited each other a few times that year, and Cory proposed in October 2001.

We were married on May 31. A month later we got our adorable pug puppy Zuzu (6 months old now).

Ok that was probably way too long, but I just wanted to tell our story in a nutshell, of how we met.

Juliet

Chessiet

Mattias, I had tears in my eyes reading about your proposal, how SWEET!

After a year of flying back and forth to visit, my (now) fiance came to Dallas to take care of me while I had an awful medical procedure. Nothing says "love" quite like a man who's willing to take care of a woman before, during and after an upper AND lower GI-oscopy (I won't go into further details, you can fill in the blanks).

After a few weeks of him visiting, I was at work one day when I got a call from my apartment office about a package that had been left there with my address, but a man's name on it (Shaun was staying with me for another month at that time).

I called Shaun to have him pick it up, and I was VERY curious. I came home for lunch and he told me he'd ordered an X-Box, and that's what the delivery was. He ushered me into the apartment and told me he'd set it up in the bedroom. I walked in there and saw a small blue leather jewelry box in the middle of the bed!

He dropped down on one knee and proposed, and I was shaking so much my knees went weak. Of course I said yes, as soon as I could speak through the tears of happiness

There's my sappy engagement story

billwilson597

I met the love of my life when I returned to Vietnam after having been gone many years after the war. She spoke english well and that helped a lot. lol It is a little ironic I guess that after being in that war and all these years later I would meet my future wife there.

Denis

I found a newsgroup in 1997 and one of the people posting in the
newsgroup had a style of writing that really appealed to me and I was
really disappointed that she left the newsgroup before I could get to
know her.

Shortly after she left I posted a question about ICQ and got a
personal reply which caused me to start chatting on ICQ with the
sender of that message. Guess what? It was the person whose writing
style had impressed me so much!

We talked for hours every week on ICQ and after about 6 months I
decided the time was right and bought a ticket to Phoenix in January
of 1998. It was like we had known each other for years and I spent at
least 4 weeks a year here in Phoenix until I was able to move here in
December 2001 on a K1. We married in January 2002 and I got my green
card last week!


--
Denis

I thought that I could see the light at the end of the
tunnel - But it was just some asshole with a flashlight
bringing me more work!

Hawkslayer

Kathy giggled as she logged on to her computer. Waiting for her was yet
another email from a man she had never met, but who claimed to be madly in
love with her. She had lost count of the number of messages he had sent....
and was forced to admit that she was developing a bit of a soft spot for
him.



Thousands of miles away in Nottinghamshire in the UK Alfie was sitting
waiting for a reply from the beautiful Georgia widow he had fallen in love
with as soon as he saw her in the picture she had sent him. Alfie, an
ex-soldier and miner who did a little writing, had been married before, but
knew that Kathy was the woman he'd been looking for.



''I paged Alfie on the 3rd March, 2001'' said Kathy ''I decided to put him
on my ICQ contact list, and we talked, and talked and talked. We seemed to
have the same sense of humour, liked the same food, music and films.''



One day Kathy picked up the phone and called Alfie. Two and a half hours
later she felt even closer to him... while Alfie told her he was in love.
''I knew it was crazy because we'd never met'' said Alfie. ''My feelings for
Kathy were really strong, but I wanted to wait and see the chemistry was
like between us just to make sure I wasn't going crazy.''



In December Alfie booked a flight to Atlanta and headed for a romantic
rendezvous with Kathy in Macon, Georgia. ''It was just like the plot of a
romantic film. I was nervous as hell and kept wondering if I was completely
crazy.'' said Alfie.



''I got out of the shuttle and looked for Kathy." said Alfie "When I saw her
wave to me from her van, my heart just leapt. She was even more beautiful
than her photographs and we just fell into each others arms. I didn't want
to let go. I had met my soul mate.''



''Alfie told me he loved me and I said it back to him'' said Kathy ''There
was a physical electricity between us like a magnet, and we both stood there
grinning at each other. ''For the next few hours we just had to keep
touching each other. We drove into Milledgeville and ate dinner.''



''After we had exchanged presents Alfie leaned over me and kissed me. I know
it sounds a bit forward, but by this time nothing was going to keep us
apart.''



Alfie says ''Taking Kathy in my arms was like nothing I'd ever experienced
before. It was so uplifting and I never wanted to let her go. I had finally
met my female equivalent. Answering her page on ICQ was a spur of the moment
thing, but from the time we met and talked I knew she was the woman for me''



''Who would have dreamed that from me paging someone on ICQ I was going to
meet the man I want to spend my life with.'' asks Kathy ''The whole thing
has been like a fairytale.''



"I'd taken trips to the UK to visit Kathy when I could, and she had come
over to the UK for visits." Says Alfie, "On one of her visits we had a day
out at the Swinderby antiques fair in Lincolnshire, and as we walked around
I spotted a gold ring with sapphires and pearls that I liked the look of.
Not wanting Kathy to know I was buying it I made an excuse, left her,
returned to the stallholder and bought the antique ring."



"We were having a few days in Scotland during the month of August." Says
Kathy "On the Wednesday night we dined at the Simply Scottish restaurant in
Jedburgh, the haggis and onion sauce was out of this world. After the meal
we sat sipping a selection of the single malt whisky's and talking. Suddenly
Alfie dropped on one knee, produced this incredibly beautiful ring and asked
me to marry him. I accepted immediately, I was so happy! To make the night
even more special, one of the diners took pictures of the whole thing. We
were given copies and look at them often, recalling that wonderfully
romantic night."



"I blame it on the malt whiskies!" Says Alfie "I often tell Kathy that I
must have had a couple over the eight to make me propose, she says, she must
have had three over the eight to accept. Anyway, to cut a long story short,
we were married on the third of March this year. I now have my K-3 visa and
leave for Milledgeville and home a week this Friday, on the 17th October.
Our story is only just beginning." To be continued.

Jack Scott

Wow, what a story Bill!! Perhaps you are marrying your daughter or
some other relative of your spawning past in 'Nam?







__________________
Vermont K1
Noa 1 01/2003
Noa 2 still waiting




billwilson597 <member@british_expats.com> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
    > I met the love of my life when I returned to Vietnam after having been
    > gone many years after the war. She spoke english well and that helped a
    > lot. lol It is a little ironic I guess that after being in that war and
    > all these years later I would meet my future wife there.

Margaret

I met mine in a MSN 40's chatroom in May 2001. I was new to the chats
and went in to check it out out of curiosity. Some women at work had
been discussing chatrooms one day.

I started off talking with a woman from Quebec. Another person
entered our conversation and the three of us talked with each other.
He was being a bit of a smarta$$ but was quite humorous at the same
time. Finally had to go and pick up my son for lunch from school and
told the other two that I enjoyed our conversation and hoped we could
all meet again sometime. As I was going to sign off, I received a
"whisper" from the one who asked if he could email me sometime as he
also enjoyed our conversation. I was hesitant (had heard all the
horror stories before) but gave in. We emailed each other constantly
which then progressed to messaging to phone calls.

He agreed to come to Canada for a visit as a "friend" but we knew in
those four months of nothing but emails, messaging and phone calls
that there was "something there." On his trip to Canada he proposed
and I accepted.

We were married in July 2002. I love this man with all my heart. He
certainly is a dream come true.

Noorah101

Those are beautiful pictures, thank you for sharing, and Best Wishes to you both :-)
Rene

sal_whit

Great post!!

I also met Whit Oct 2000 online !!!
I used to go to a games room at pogo.com. After a year of talking and playing with the same group of people,A girl friend who lives in Maryland arranged the whole group to meet in Baltimore,while I was on vaccation with her.This was March 2001.
I met 16 people that day all of which I knew for a year in the online games room.They came from all over the USA!!!
It was a great day,One I will never forget.
That was the day I met Whit,Like all the others from the group we kept going to the games room.
In June 2001, I spent 7 weeks in Maryland with my friend again,Being as Whit Lived 10 mins away we got together and our relationship grew from there.
I have my friend to thank for all of this, as if she had not arranged the meeting or offered for me to stay with her Whit and I would still be just friends in a games room!!!

Sal

Steff

We met on Ultima Online and were friends for about 3 years before anything happened