*Warning. Don’t read this if you’re trying to avoid hearing every cheesy cliché thing you’ve ever heard about falling in love and relationships ;).
How We Met
Almost a year and a half ago Allan got a job opportunity in south Texas. He heard it wasn’t a great place for social, single guys like himself, so he went to Facebook and started adding himself to a lot of young single adult groups in Texas for our church. At some point I popped up (maybe as a “someone you might know”??) and he saw that we had three mutual friends who were Brazilian and I had several cover and profile pictures that were taken in Brazil. He was hoping to make friends who knew Portuguese or were at least familiar with Brazil so he added me and sent me a message. That’s where it all began! Months later I asked him how many other girls he added, since I assumed I was only one of many. He said none! Ha, it was always meant to be ;).
It took a few tries and with a few months in between contact, but one time he got tired of texting and asked if he could call me. I don’t know what it was about hearing each other’s voice, but that first call lasted for hours, as did every call after that. After some online chatting, THREE long phone calls and an invitation from him I bought a ticket to Brazil and then the longest wait of my life began. I didn’t tell him right away that I bought the ticket, but when I did his reaction was perfect and a little hilarious. Some guys might be scared off by a girl who buys an airline ticket to another hemisphere to visit him, but I could hear the surprise and excitement in his voice and I’m pretty sure he told me I was crazy. Good crazy ;). We started talking 3-6 hours a day, often until the sun started rising in Brazil, and spent over 200 hours on the phone or video chatting before we ever met in real life! Meeting in person solidified every thought and feeling we had and we were really able to begin the best adventure of our lives.
When we first started messaging we talked about how neither of us fell hard that often and how finding the right person seemed to be like magic. We both hated all those dumb relationship clichés you always hear; “it’ll happen when you meet the right person”; “when you know you know”; “it will happen when you least expect it/when you aren’t looking”; etc. Well, we’ve since humbled ourselves and in our situation all those stupid clichés turned out to be true ;). We both thought people who got married quickly were crazy!! But if it hadn’t been for the complicated visa process, we would have gotten married even sooner. Never did either of us expect something quite like this. Never had something felt so right.
Pictures of our Adventures Together
Before we had real life pictures together, we had dozens of screen shots of our video chats! I’ll spare you most of them and only post two ;).
And we also had this picture my niece Claire drew :).
Then we finally met in real life!!
I flew to Brazil for six days the first time. We spent time with his family, eating our favorite Brazilian foods, going to gardens, hiking and camping, and to the beach. We walked in the ocean at midnight and discovered thousands of photo plankton glowing in the water every time we moved. He taught me how to dance forró. His brother invited us to go to São Paulo one night and an hour later we were in the car, set to arrive at 1 am. We stayed up all night and then Allan and I explored the city on no sleep! We climbed trees in the city just to eat my new favorite treat, amor berries. He showed me some of his favorite places, but there are so so many more we want to explore together.
Stayed up all night and then walked around São Paulo all morning!
Not too long after my trip to Brazil he picked up his life and came to Houston :).
We took a trip to San Antonio and he got to meet some of my best friends, Sean and Natalie!!
We took a trip to Destin, Florida too!
We finally got our rings! In Brazil it’s customary that the couple both get a gold band when they get engaged. Each person is supposed to wear it on the right hand until they get married and then they move it to the left hand. You also engrave the name of your spouse on the inside, and after marriage you get the wedding date engraved. Such a sweet tradition :). I love our simple rings and that we got them together.
He went back to Brazil, but we weren’t apart for long! I headed there a week later and then we flew to Brasilia to spend Christmas with his family.
Spent NYE in Rio! Everyone wears white and 2 million people go to Copacabana to party and watch the fireworks!
Then something that we didn’t expect! I broke my toe going down this slide with Allan. Got to experience a free public hospital in Brazil! Haha.
National rain forest in Peruibe.
Alone in Houston waiting on Allan’s visa!!
We’ve certainly had our challenges and hardships, but we’re so excited to be together. Sempre.
