No kidding...wow, I hope I don't have problems
My short story.....
Met my wife online the beginning of April, talked every day, and started Skype near end of April...After 3 Skype calls we declared we thought we were falling in love with each other. Of course at this time, I had to take measures to ensure the feelings were true by planning a trip to meet her and her family. So we continued talking until my departure on June 24 for 2 week visit.......I met her family, friends, and was honestly blown away by everything about her....at the end of the trip I asked her to marry me before I returned home at the Taal Vista hotel.
At this point I wasn't officially divorced by Canadian law, although I was separated from my X, I had no reason to make divorce official....until then. I then proceeded to complete the required paperwork and file, and in the meantime, my then fiance and myself were having issues being apart....I tried for a visit visa for her but was declined. At this point I (we) were either facing a 2 week holiday once a year, or drastic measures. I opted for drastic measures and planned to move to Phil late October.
Upon arrival we planned to get married by civil ceremony first so we wouldn't be living in sin together while we planned our catholic wedding. Instead of Manila, we flew to Seychelles for civil ceremony (Filipino visa on arrival) which was a gorgeous place, and got married Nov. 25....then lived together until catholic ceremony June 26 the following year (one year after meeting in person).
We then went to Palawan, Bohol, Boracay for a approx. month honeymoon before I returned home to file our application with CIC...(note that our application was returned once due to form revision numbers).
Anyway, we both knew the plan was always for me to return home as I couldn't be away from my daughter for too long....it was hard enough at first, but as a parent, you can see the value in sacrifice for the greater good, and living together and growing our marriage was crucial for us before I could physically introduce my wife to my daughter, however, we talked on skype all the time, and I think my daughter actually kind of understood even though she was 3 at the time...hard to explain how I knew.
That's my short story, and now we're coming up on our 2 years anniversary of meeting....so in short, I think the average rules of dating then marriage are completely thrown out the window when starting something with someone over seas....we knew it would be a long journey.....would things have been different if she were here...yep....but that's how we did it because we knew of the journey it would be.
Cheers!