Chris and I met on Okcupid.com in July of 2006; this is our love story.

I have kept pen pals for as long as I can remember, so when I joined Okcupid.com it wasn't with love in mind. There were a lot of fun questionnaires and personality profilers to play with and the matching system fascinated me because it didn’t just point you to people you might find great love with, but also people you might make great friends with. My scores with most people usually ranged in about the 75-85 percent mark at the highest. One day I got curious…I wanted to see who had the highest scores with me out of any location. My jaw dropped when I was pointed towards a seriously hot *Australian* man with a match of 94% out of a possible 95% who seemed to have so much in common with me. I never thought he’d message me back because he was definitely way out of my league and I couldn’t see why he would be interested in talking to someone like me. To my surprise, he sent back a message that seemed really interested to get to know me! We began exchanging messages and developed crushes on each other fairly quickly. Over the next 5 months we would send emails upwards of 5000 words on a weekly basis at first and then we graduated to msn chats every chance we got,YouTube video-mail and, eventually, phone calls. There was nothing we disagreed on. We divulged our deepest secrets and most intimate dreams. It got to the point that it was painful to go very long without speaking to him; I knew things had gone too far. I could not keep entertaining ideas of a relationship that was never ever going to happen because he was 8000 miles away!!! But the minute I went to tell him that we needed to stop this, whatever it was, I asked myself why I was so ready to cut off contact with the man of my dreams to try and find someone else who measured up to that standard just because of the inconvenience of distance. Distance is a hurdle to overcome just like anything else and I knew that I would never be able to move past this time in my life if I didn’t give him the chance he deserved. So, I did something rash; I dropped out of school and started working full time to save for a plane ticket to Australia to meet this guy I was so infatuated with. On January 16^th, 2007 we both committed to not see other people until we gave our relationship a valid chance(we consider that as our anniversary today rather than the date of our physical meeting.) And so the journey began…

    I landed in Sydney on June 1^st, 2007 almost a year after that first message was sent. I walked down the ramp from customs and saw Chris on the opposite side of the room about 50 yards away. I wanted to drop my luggage and run to him! That first embrace was so special to me. All I could think was how unreal it was that I was doing the impossible just by holding him, and then I was shocked by how TALL he is!! (At 6’3” he is one of the few men who tower over my 5’9” frame.) The next 6 weeks were a whirlwind of chivalry with 5 star hotel rooms and dinners, meetings with friends and family, trips into the rainforest and rendezvous with kangaroos. (they feel like bunny fur!) There was never an awkward moment between us and he only managed to confirm everything I’d ever believed about him and more.

    Easily the longest time we’ve spent apart since that meeting was the following 5 months. It was the most painful and difficult experience of my life and was a real test for both of us. My next trip to Australia lasted 8 weeks and gave us the opportunity to get to know each other in a different way as I also got to know his family and friends more intimately. We were definitely beginning to come to the end of that “honeymoon phase” of our relationship where everything was unicorns and rainbows, and learned that being together is a lot of work.

    Reading the books “For Men Only” and “For Women Only” as well as “The Five Love Languages” have really helped us have great communication and keep each other’s needs fulfilled. I recommend it to all of you because it revolutionized our relationship and the fact that we’ve NEVER had an argument is a testament to that fact. Which is not to say there is never miscommunication, we have both just really learned to listen to each other and to give and take as needed.

    When Chris came to America to meet my family, it was a 3 month stay and included trips to Hawaii and New York. My family fell in love with him and Chris fell in love with America!! I was honestly surprised at this point that we still weren't engaged because we talked about our wedding and our future in Australia together all the time. It was obvious he planned on marrying me and his reluctance to put that ring on my finger led to an intense discussion about where all of this was leading. When the sermon in church that Sunday was titled "JUST GET MARRIED!" we had a laugh about it all and he promised we would be engaged by the end of the year, but on his terms. I sheepishly agreed and the rest of his stay was so much more enjoyable with that tension out of the air. He left in May '08 and I wasn't far behind him in June of last year.

    My third stint in the land down under was my longest yet at 3 months. I wasn't legally allowed to work, so my days were spent mostly waiting for Chris to come home from work and play with me! We live in a terribly small mining town of about 5000 people and it's really hard to meet people unless I wanted to go out to the pub every night which isn't really my scene anyways. As lonely as the days could be, we'd go into town on the weekends where all of his friends live and I started to find my place in his world. As different as Australia is from America, I was really beginning to believe that I could get used to it all and really be happy there.

Engaged!

However, my heart was sinking as my stay in Queensland was coming to a close and he still hadn’t proposed. Imagine my surprise when he walked into my room one Friday and told me to pack a bag. I was confused! While we do a lot of traveling, we hadn’t planned on going anywhere together that weekend. I asked what was going on and he said that we’re going to Brisbane. Brisbane is the capital city of Queensland and the third largest city in Australia; it's where he meets me each time I come into the country and where we say goodbye each time I leave so it is a very special place for us.  He explains he has a few surprises planned along the way so I should pack a nice dress. The next day as we arrived in Brisbane, I smiled as the taxi pulled up in front of the Hilton, what we think of as our special place. Even when the budget doesn’t permit a stay in the hotel, we always stop for drinks in the Hilton lounge there when we’re in town; it was where we stayed my first time in Brisbane and where we shared our first kiss and exchanged "I love you's" for the first time. This was promising to be a special weekend! As we settled into the room Chris said there had been a problem with his credit card at reception and he needed to go find a bank quickly to sort it out. Because of the early flight that morning, it wasn't long before I fell asleep. I woke up to Chris curling up behind me and suggesting a trip to Starbucks which was in the mall downstairs. I was super excited because it's the only Starbucks in the state and I hadn't had my fix in months!! We spent the rest of the day shopping and he even gifted me with new shoes because when he told me we'd be walking 20 blocks to the river parkland that evening I mentioned that I'd only brought one pair of high-heeled shoes for the weekend to save space. I smiled at my shiny new flats as we walked hand in hand among thousands of others making the trek down to Southbank. Chris told me that it was the first night of the Riverfestival and that I could expect a HUGE fireworks show the likes of which I'd never seen. 

After the fireworks show Chris walked me back to the hotel and I changed into that dress he'd asked me to bring to make our dinner reservation. I had no idea where we were going! When we sat down at the restaurant and I saw the prices on the menu, Chris just smiled and told me not to worry about the cost, this was our last long weekend together (Chris has every other weekend as 4 days off) before I go back and we were going to enjoy it! Of course, at this point I'm putting things together: the expensive hotel, expensive shoes without blinking an eye, an outrageous fireworks show and now a 5 star dinner. Images of him down on one knee flickered through my mind but logic told me that he'd never had a chance to get a ring, we're together 24/7! As our meal came out and we enjoyed some nice wine I begain to wonder if maybe he'd organized something over the phone from something he'd seen online or something....but I decided not to worry about it. If this was the night, it would all work out on it's own!

We stopped for cocktails in the lounge upon arrival to the hotel, a perfect end to a very perfect day. I ordered my favorite, a Scangomotch and Chris had his old standby Mojito. However, Chris seemed a little tense and wouldn't tell me what was up no matter how times I asked if he was alright so I decided to finish my drink upstairs and we could have an early night.

When I opened the door to our room, there was a platter of some kind of dessert on the desk that had "congratulations" spelled out in chocolate sauce and a dozen roses on the bed, Chris told me to close my eyes and my heart started pounding. When I opened them, he was on one knee asking me to marry him!! I squealed out a yes and pulled him up into a hug and a kiss. I kept asking where he got it from, I'm with him all the time! He said that two weeks ago when he'd been about an hour late from work, it wasn't because he'd gotten held back. He hadn't even gone to work that day, he'd driven the 2 hours into town and got a flight to Brisbane where he met with a man at Hardy Brothers and designed this ring for me before flying back the same day with me being nonethewiser. On top of that, there had never been a problem with his credit card that afternoon; he just needed an excuse to pick the ring up from the jeweler!!! Ahhh! How sneaky? :) He handed me the most beautiful bouquet of roses I'd ever laid eyes on and I was just on cloud 9! We ended the night with a glass of champagne and a smile on our faces.

A suprise trip to our special place, a suprise ring I didn't think could exist, it was just so special. When we returned home to Moranbah, Chris's mom decorated the front drive with tealights to greet us and say congratulations. It was really beautiful and was the icing on the cake of a very very special weekend.