It's been 8 years since I married the man that God gave me. I still remember, we only had 10 days to prepare for our wedding. When hubby arrived in the Philippines to meet me for the first time, I never thought that he was planning to marry me. He didn't say anything to me before. I thought he just came to meet me in person. He suggested that we get married in the US so the processing of my visa will be faster if I will apply for a fiancee visa. But I told him I wanted to get married in my homeland so my family and friends can attend our wedding. He agreed and so it was a rush wedding. He had only two weeks to stay and he had to extend another week for our wedding. To my amazement he brought cash money with him for our wedding.

First we went to the US embassy in Manila to get the legal capacity to contract marriage and then we applied for our wedding contract in our town hall. It took 10 days to wait for the contract so while we were waiting, we did the wedding preparations like renting my wedding gown, printing the wedding invitations, shopping for my shoes, contacting friends for my wedding entourage, buying pigs to butchered, buying groceries and decorating the church. I was the one who prepared my wedding giveaways and all those wedding preparations gave me some sleepless nights.

Then came the day of our wedding. That was September 11, 2002 and it rained the night before. We hired a video and camera men. I was like a celebrity posing in front of the camera. I remember I was even coughing that time maybe due to too much stress. After the pictorial was done and my fiancee had seen me, he came to me and told me I was so beautiful! When I was ready, George and I rode in the same car going to the church. We were late on our wedding time. Blame it to the camera man, it took him long to shoot my photos. But in fairness, he really did a very good job including the video man.

The ceremony began and I marched down the isle with my aunt while my groom was waiting for me at the altar. I was all smiles while marching. I said to myself this is the day I've been waiting for. To marry the man that God gave me, the answer to my prayers. The officiating minister gave a very inspiring message to us and after that, there was an intermission number rendered by Jhun and then another one, a duet by Jhun and Glo. Then it was the time to say "I do" and that was the time I got nervous. I was thinking, this is it, no more turning back. We made our vows to the Lord to love and to cherish each other for the rest of our lives. It was a vow that we will honor all the days of our lives.

The reception was held in the front yard of our house. A bunch of people came to eat. Some were invited, a lot were not. Most of them were gate crashers, lol! When George had seen the people coming in, he said people are coming out of wood works, lol! I asked him what he means and he said people are coming out from everywhere. The caterer told me after the reception that the 500 plates that she brought were all used. It's a good thing that we had more than enough foods and a lot of left overs. I gave some foods to my relatives to take home.

I thank God for giving me my husband, a man who love the Lord and me. We had our ups and downs in our lives but God was always there for us. We've seen God's faithfulness during those times that we were down physically, financially and emotionally. I give back the honor, praise and thanksgiving to our Lord Almighty. May He give us more anniversaries to come and more years to live so we can serve Him faithfully the best way we can.

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