How we met!
My friend Troy Amos joined an internet dating site that specialized in foreign women from around the world. Troy and I play tennis on a regular basis - after the tennis match we normally catch up on life’s events. Troy shared that he found a very nice girl on a dating site, he also mentioned that she had a sister and asked “did I want to meet her”. I had been divorced a while and never remarried. During our tennis matches and discussions Troy continued to expound on the advantages of having a Filipino wife. I met Troy’s girlfriend’s sister online, Troy mentioned other Filipino girls friends with his girl but I wasn’t interested – until I met RUTH!
Ruth and I hit it off immediately – Troy showed me a picture of her on Facebook, I thought she looked more Thai than filipino but cute. I reached out to her and introduced myself, we continued to exchange messages on Facebook throughout the day. She explained to me that she has one son, she works in Hong Kong but her permanent residence was in the Philippines. We exchanged likes and dislikes and found that we had a great deal in common. I found that she was very kind, very nurturing, had a strong work ethic, strong faith and had a very pleasant personality. I was pleasantly surprised to find that she was very well educated in early childhood development - well-traveled and very knowledgeable in a number of subjects. We decided to start communicating on Skype and various other video messengers – we started communicating every day.
After approximately four months of communicating daily we decided that we would meet in person at our mutual friend’s “Troy and Teresita’s” pending wedding scheduled to be held in Cebu Philippines. We both agreed that we were compatible and wanted to take our relationship to the next level. We had discussed our age difference, including her child that resides in the Philippines, what type of character we possessed and the potential obstacles resulting from a union between people from different cultures. We discussed how Ruth could work in the USA and continue to support her family members and how I would support her while training.
During the time spent planning our trip to Cebu I realized that I was sure I wanted to marry Ruth. Ruth convinced me that she was serious about our relationship when she insisted on paying her own travel cost and assisting her mother, son and brother with their travel expense. I met Ruth’s sister online discussed our relationship and gained her approval. Ruth and I planned to meet in Cebu where I would get acquainted with her family - everyone was informed about our relationship and we were all very excited. We decided to travel to Cebu because there is a US travel advisory for US citizen’s traveling to Mindanao. We planned to stay at a local hotel that had a kitchen and facilities so that we could all meet and get to know each other.
I called Ruth’s mother December of 2013 and requested her permission to marry her daughter. Everyone was very accepting of our relationship then Ruth’s Brother died suddenly at age 46. His funeral demanded that Ruth travel to the Philippines before we were scheduled to meet in January. I was surprise that Ruth was able to attend her brother’s funeral then return to meet me in January.
We vacationed for nine days in Cebu where we had an incredible time – we spent all day and night together, most of the time talking, laughing and having fun till late in the night. I PROPOSED to Ruth during that trip and she accepted. We now plan to get married ASAP and start our life together. Troy and Teresita did travel to Cebu but decided to file for a K1 visa instead of opting for a Pilipino wedding. We all plan to continue to be friends and reside in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
