|
Our Little Story Shortened form: Nathan and I met online in late 1997 (I was in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; he in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA), introduced by a mutual friend, Rob (whom he knew offline, and I knew only online). Started to like each other (like in the high school sense) around the middle of 1998 and probably wouldn't be together if it weren't for our dear friend Yin, who pushed us into talking to each other about it. Planned for being together in person, and finally accomplished it in April of 2000. Nathan spent a week in Australia and then I galavanted over to the States for about three months on a visitor's visa-type-thingie (i.e., the little card you can fill out on the plane instead of applying for an actual visa). Then I came home and we worked our way through the INS muck in order for me to get a fiancee visa. It took about a year (our lack of immigration lawyer, financial situation and other things stood in the way), but we made it, and I arrived back in the States in July, 2001. We had three months from my entry to get married, and we didn't want a big affair, so Nathan's mom Karen helped us out and discovered an inexpensive package deal with a lovely place up in Eureka Springs, Hidden Acres. We just had to choose colours, a date, and a time. We chose September the 11th at random - I said, "Tuesday" and we chose a 5pm ceremony, and that's about how we came to it. On the 11th, everything was pretty chaotic. Nathan had pondered briefly on the idea of postponing the wedding as a mark of respect, but his father told him that life has to go on, even in the midst of tragedy like that. So we went ahead and were married that day, which has to be one of the most surreal I've ever experienced - in amongst this great outpouring of confusion, grief and sadness, we had this little bubble in which we were insulated from it, sort of encapsulated in a strange kind of bliss. Hidden Acres is on a very quiet spot in the middle of the Ozarks - it seemed we were almost in another world there, one totally seperate from the one in which great and terrible things can happen. From time to time I feel guilty that we were so happy on that day. I've taken a long time to get around to putting these pictures online in some kind of orderly fashion, and I hope that you like them. - sammy. |