How We Met
We met 2 years ago on an island in Thailand, Koh Phangen Island on September 7, 2018. He is Belgian living in Brussels, Belgium and I’m an American living currently in Florida. After meeting two days later he messaged me and we kept talking ever since. I had a month-long Europe trip planned that February and he could not wait that long to see me. He ended up visiting me two times before then and the rest was history :) Since then we have been able to see each other every 3 months to make our relationship work before the pandemic and travel ban was implemented.
How They Asked
We have not been able to see each other since March 2020 due to the travel ban. I am a frontline healthcare provider and the stress with work, loans, pay cuts, and the unknown of when we will be able to see each other physically rather than through a screen has been beyond the worst feeling and indescribable hard situation. We have had 4 flights canceled in hopes to see each other. Let down after let down, he wanted to do something traditional and ask my father for my hand in marriage and propose to me. The travel ban would not let this happen. Another letdown. So, he asked me via zoom and promised when we see each other before we get married he will do it right. So, it’s been extremely hard trying to plan a wedding with the unknown and realization of everything. I had a bridal shower my mother planned for me, but was recently canceled. This has been the hardest year and we are hoping to have a small intimate wedding in the Bahamas in February 2021 because that country allows both Belgians and Americans as of now. I pray this happens. It’s nothing what we ever planned or expected, but we cannot keep letting the travel ban and virus win and postpone our lives together because life is too short. Our story is not traditional or how it’s suppose to be, but this is our story and we are praying it will work!