Hamei & I started talking at the end of May while i was still in Iraq on active duty with the Army. We continued talking from that time on just about everyday. We found that we had a lot of things in common even from when we first time we started talking. I remember at that time she was just looking for someone to talk to because she had broken up with her boyfriend. I was in the same situation myself with a girlfriend of mine. Even though there were a lot of cultural differences between us we always found something to talk about. We always talked about things that mattered the most in life like the way people may think or do things. We shared music between each other and stuff that we found funny on line. It wasn't until the next month when i decided to talk to her on the phone. Again we always had something to talk about. At that time we were finding out more about each other, the place where we live and our current situations. We thought the best way to get to know each other was to be closer. It was something that came more with time than anything else. All the ideas we shared allowed us to be even closer without us even realizing it. It wasn't something we worked really hard at or planned. It just all felt very natural like we known each other for a lifetime. When you talk to someone on line or on the phone without actually seeing them in person you might have a distorted view about the person actually is. The way we talked and shared ideas it was like we were in person the entire time because once we finally did meet there really wasn't that much of a difference between us. We were extremely close even before the time we met in person because we did say that we do love each other a lot and that there wasn't going to be anything stopping us from being together. We would say that we missed each other, that we loved each other and we still do. We agreed to marry even before we met because we have felt like we have known each other for that long already in a time of two months from talking. Finally after a long deployment in Iraq I was allowed to go on block leave approximately 2 months after returning. I have not seen any combat action due to my job in the Army. I worked out of a office the entire time in Iraq so I had a lot of time to talk to Hamei. We talked for as long as we could do everyday. I even lost a lot of sleep. I remember us having some problems because we were skeptical about each other and how we were in our present situations and how we would be exactly in person when we were learning more about each other. Again the majority of the problems arose from our cultural differences. When we finally did meet on December 22, 2008 in Beijing International Airport and continued to know each other further we found out there really wasn't that many differences between us. We were already prepared for the decision that we made even before we met and us really being together would make our decision that much more official and the circumstances for which we met were phenomenal.
