I don’t usually write, especially in English, but my husband keeps motivating to write cause he wants me to improve my English as well as share our love story with everyone. While I am sitting here (in our messy room), my husband is busy writing his thesis (cause he is completing his PH.D). My name is Loan. I was born and grew up in Vietnam, a country that is known for terrible wars. I love singing and photography (I just started loving photography since the day I met my husband). 🙂 Speaking of my husband, it makes me recall how we met each other. It was a long story that is impossible to believe.
In 2011, I was completing my Bachelor of Art at Ho Chi Minh University of Pedagogy in Vietnam. Thong who lives in Canada just came back from his internship in California. Our relationship started when his dad encouraged him to look for a partner. His dad went online to a a website called vietsingle.com. He saw my profile and sent me an email pretended that he was Thong. After many emails sharing each other’s story, he called me and at that time I was so shocked when I heard an old voice on the phone. At that time. I thought that there is no doubt when people said that online dating is a fake and deception. But wait, he in time explained everything to me. Thong was so shy to look for a girlfriend. That is the reason why his dad had to do it for him (I know it sounds strange to everyone here, because we are living in such a modern and connected life, just one mouse click and you can find a lot of people from young to old, from boys to girls, or even gays or lesbians).
Thong’s dad gave him the phone and asked him to talk to me, and can you believe, I still remember word by word that he talked to me. Here is our first conversation:
Me: Hi, how are you?
Thong: Good
Me: What are you doing?
Thong: Nothing
Me: (thinking: Hix, What am I going to ask next?) Ok… Er.. Can you give the phone to your dad?
Thong: ok (thinking: this girl is so mean –> he just told me that when we are already married. 🙂
I kept talking to his dad for over 3 days, and until the 4th day, Thong started talking to me (because he was hassled constantly by his dad) Actually, we just messaged to each other on Skype. Honestly, Thong at that time didn’t want to talk to me because he didn’t believe in online dating especially with a girl that was halfway around the world. We started talking about our hobbies. I knew that he likes playing games, so I asked him if he wanted to play any games with me. And the first gift he gave me was an online game: Star Scraft. (He later bought me numerous other games online (Left for Death, Civilization are our favourites) and this is how I first met his friends – by playing games together and talking on Skype.)
We talked (actually just messaged on Skype) to each other every day. After 1 month, we began voice chat, half of the time we talked about random stuff online: Facebook, Youtube…, half of the time, we play games. 6 months passed, we started video chat, and the first time saw each other on the webcam. I made him a lot of videos in which I sang songs, and he liked them so much (later he told me that he started loving me from that day on)
We celebrated Thong’s 26th birthday on Skype.
After many months of knowing each other (approximately 10 months), his parents suggested that he should move forward with the relationship and marry me. He asked me and I agreed, and so did my family. So started to look online at the process and started the process by getting a Marriage Search done for Thông (in July). The plan was to get married during the Lunar New Year – his parents would help financially, and my parents would do the planning in Vietnam. When the date was set, his parents bought airplane tickets in preparation. We would countdown the number of days until we finally met in person.
When the day finally came, it was the happiest point in my life, since I was able to be with Thong, and was the first time I was able to hold and hug someone, having never dated before. During the week before our wedding, we had to run around getting the paperwork and wedding preparations done. He stayed in Vietnam for a month (from January to February), where we were by each other’s side continuously.
Every party has its ending. One month flew by so fast. He had to go back to Canada. I cried very much on the day I said goodbye to him at the airport. We still contacted via Skype, we messaged to tell to each other everything everyday.
I said goodbye to Thong at the airport
Knew that we can’t live without each other, I asked him to visit me again in summer while waiting for my sponsor paperwork which might take 22 months. 🙁 So we met again after 3 months since the day I said goodbye to him at the airport. This time, we had more time together. I visited Mui Ne by train and we also carried the motorbikes with us. That is unforgettable memory to us. There we took a lot of pictures, and Thong experience a lot of thing that he has never had a chance to experience before. Every where we went. we always took pictures to save our sweet memories. (That is why photography became my hobby now).
And again, the time came, he had to go back to Canada. This time, I had to think of the ways to see him again. In August 2012, I tried applying for the visa to visit him in Canada. I prepared everything carefully. It took me 2 weeks to get all the paperwork done, 1 day of running around to the Canada Embassy in Vietnam cause they said that my paper was missing some things. Finally I accepted my application and ask me to go home and wait for their reply. 2 weeks later I got their phone call to ask me to come and get the result. I carried the result from Canada Embassy but didn’t open it yet. While i was in the elevator, I heard the lady was talking on the phone with her friend happily that she just got the visa. I could breathe easily and hoped that in the yellow envelop that I was holding here is the visa to Canada. Riding on my motorcycle, I still prayed and prayed. In my room, I by myself opened the envelop, and the first thing that my eyes saw was …sorrry…..your application…declined….. I felt like the my world came crashing down on me. I phoned Thong right away and he couldn’t sleep at that time.
I put it aside, focused on my job of teaching. We still talked to each other every night, and hope that time will pass fast so that we can reunite together. And then one day I by chance checked my email, and saw an email, I thought that was spam, i wanted to delete it yet I also wanted to see what it is. Luckily I opened it and I still couldn’t figure it out. I forwarded it to Thong, and he couldn’t believe in his eyes. the email told me to submit my passport and get the visa. I can tell that was the happiest day in my life. I got my visa and after 3 weeks I reunite with my husband in Canada.
Until now, I still can’t believe all of things that happened to me. The proverb: “Man proposes, God disposes” is right to me all the time. Even though I tried to find a lot of ways to visit Thong in Canada, I failed. But while I wasn’t looking forward to anything, I got what I wanted.
Now we are living together happily in Toronto. Even though we don’t have a lot of money, we have time to enjoy life with each other everyday. We want to visit as many places we like as possible and of course in each place we came we try to save our wonderful experience by taking pictures and share it with everyone.