How Our Love Story Started

Psalms 126:3 – The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.

I used this verse as a caption to our engagement photo on Instagram. I would say this is very true and frames our story well.

John and I first met online. I was in the Philippines and he was teaching in Korea. It was in 2015 when I decided to sign into a site to find a language partner. John, on the other hand, was looking for a dance partner to take classes with. I remember the first message that he sent me…  “Hey, do you dance salsa?”. That was when I had to tell him that I wasn’t really in Korea and explained to him why my location says “Seoul, South Korea”.

When I learned that he doesn’t speak Korean, I kinda hesitated to keep messaging him but when he told me that he is half Filipino and he wanted to learn Tagalog, I willingly offered to teach him and because he knows Spanish we decided to begin a language exchange on Skype.

It was in 2016 when John visited the Philippines for vacation. He asked me if I could give him a tour. I had to seek my parent’s approval first and when my dad said he’s okay with it, we planned to meet in Manila. Our first real date happened at the KFC just outside Victory Malate, Manila. We ate fried chicken and then attended the church service together.

Later that day John met my parents, brother, and grandmother. He was very surprised because he was only expecting to meet my dad at that time. When my dad offered him a ride back to his hotel, my whole family decided to squeeze in the car and we all went to Manila together.

The next day, John told me that he wanted to visit a beach, so my mom took him to a private resort with natural black sand and a beautiful view of the ocean. We ate fresh ripe mangoes and watermelon that my mom prepared.

John and I have both committed from a very young age to save our first real kiss for marriage. That is lip-to-lip kissing. So far, so good. But, according to John “no kissing at all is just boring”. So it was there on the beach that he kissed me on the cheek. But hey! Our first lip kiss still happened on our wedding day and it was wonderful!

 

John returned to Korea from vacation and for four months we didn’t have any communication. I blocked him on all my social media accounts when I learned that he started a relationship with a girl from his church in Korea. I shouldn’t be upset about it but I just felt like I was led on.

After months of not talking I was surprised to receive an email from him asking for forgiveness and a desire to prayerfully consider being in a relationship with him. He also mentioned that the girl whom he was in a relationship with broke up with him months before he approached me. He prayed about it and drafted the letter until he had peace in his heart to send me the letter through email.

John visited me again in February 2017, and then in July 2017, I came to visit John in Jeju, a tropical island off the southern coast of Korea. It was here on July 22nd that John proposed to me, on a secluded black sand beach reminiscent of our first date and cheek kiss. You can read my blog about the proposal here.

Besides these short and idyllic times, the majority of our relationship has been long-distance. We have spent hundreds of hours of video chatting and messaging, using a combination of Skype and Facebook messenger. I’m so thankful for unlimited high-speed internet. Without it, I would never have met John.

 

On August 6th of 2017, John and I celebrated the first anniversary of our exclusive relationship. Actually, we forgot to celebrate it, which is surprising considering how good my memory is when it comes to important things like this.

Since meeting John nearly four years ago, our relationship has experienced many highs and many lows, many late-night arguments, following by tearfully making up again in the morning. Mostly what remains though is a fun friendship and a deeply felt love that we believe will stand the test of time.

I am so thankful that God allowed our online chats to blossom into friendship, and our friendship to blossom into romance. We hope that our marriage would bless not only our own lives but many others as well.