December 2010

Well... life has slowed down for a little and I feel I have some time to update everyone via this wonderful blog!


After filing and receiving conformation that the petition is in process, We decided to meet in Fiji and visit the US embassy! I arrived in Fiji a week before Sione did. I had fun getting to know Suva and mapping out where the markets are, the best internet cafe for communication, the best and cheep-est place to stay without feeling like bugs are crawling on you!!! In Fiji the international airport is in Nandi and the US Embassy is in Suva 3 1/2 hrs drive form Nandi. You can either take a costly short domestic flight to Suva or a scenic route by taxi or a longer drive by bus. I was fortunate to have taken a domestic flight! As Sione and I where trying to figure out how he will reach Suva. I was blessed to have shared a room at the Fiji Temple Motel with two lovely Tongan ladies. They had found a Taxi driver that was Tongan and he lived in Suva so at a steal of a deal and a fractions of the price they were able to take the drive to Suva. They were leaving for Tonga the same day Sione was coming to Fiji.... Problem solved we arranged to have the Taxi driver pick Sione up at the air port and give the drive the address to drop Sione off at our motel. I told Sione that I will show the driver a photo of him and sione said that he will be wearing a red shirt.... Sione felt somewhat confident but joked that he might be spending the night in the airport because He doesn’t know the Taxi driver and how loose the set up is. I decide to surprise Sione and catch a ride with the two ladies to the airport and spend the day at the airport. With a tight schedule for the driver and the girls wanting to make it there with enough time to check in, we headed off in a hurry and about 30 minutes into the trip the taxi car broke down. Gratefully the diver had a buddy with a taxi car who came out and we swapped cars so we could continue on like there had been no problems! With no other delays we arrived at the air port in good time! I was so tired yet so awake and excited to see Sione in 6hrs... I counted down the time and waited.

As I was in my little world I wasn’t paying attention to the weather and that the departing flights were delayed because of a rain storms!!! with the weather still calm at the air port I walked over to the passenger arrivals and hijacked some wi-fi and as I was sitting in lounge opened to the outdoors as it began to just dump rain with strong winds... I started to film it with my camera to show how fast and intense it had gotten (still not cluing in that this might affect flights).




Right after I stopped filming a huge bolt of lightning cracked next to us and I screamed so loud that it rang thru the entry way... I didn't know I was this kind of girl to shrill this loud... being embarrassed and looking at all the male taxi drivers I collected my things and causally walked away! It was then that I started to think about how in the world does a polite fly in this kind of weather... By this time I should have heard form Sione that he is boarding the plane in Tonga to Fiji. Then the phone rings and he is asking if I can check to see what is going on with the delay... He still doesn’t know that I am at the airport hopefully... I told him about the rain storm and that I will give a call to the airport, haha or just walk over to the departures desk and ask!!! Call Sione back telling him that the flight is still departing just delayed and that it will reach Tonga a lot latter than expected.... so more waiting!!! The sky had opened up as fast as they had dumped rain so I headed back to find that barrowed wi-fi that kept me entertained!!!

Time went so slow! I scouted out a perfect seat that was partly hidden yet I could still see him coming thru the doors without him seeing me first.... when the plane landed I kept a locked gaze at the arrival doorway that he would walk thru.... As I was waiting a, Fijian man was sitting in the same location and was asking all kinds of questions and I told him I was trying to surprise my husband. Every guy that came thru he would ask ‘hey, is that him' I was kind of annoyed by him! Then my heart jumped into my throat I pulled on my backpack as Sione walked thru the doors. The guy that was talking to me started to wave his hands and distracted Sione for a min as I walked up to him. As I watched his head turn searching the crowd his eyes caught mine and I could see him start to melt as he just stood frozen!!! ‘YES! I thought to myself’ I do know how to surprise Sione!!! We hugged in front of all these people waiting for friends and family but we didn’t care... we shortly found the taxi driver and headed back to Suva. I will never forget that night. The roads where still wet and winding around the island, the driver looked like he hadn’t slept in a long time as he pounded down his second red bull... I said at least three prayers in my heart that night and was so grateful to have reached our motel in Suva in one piece. we aslo spent our first Christmass there in Fiji and we where able to skyped family back in Utah on Chrismass day!!!

Spouse Visa

Good news! I found a Visa that allows Sione to come over while the petition for US residency is being progress! I sent this off about a week ago and I have received information that it is being processed! YEAH, SO now we wait till this is handed down the line to Fiji (the closest embassy to Him). My focus is to have all needed documents completed and be ready to jump when they give us the green light!

Petition WOE

I Came home mid September to file the petition from here, because there is no other way....... and because we had tried to sumit the petition while I was in Tonga and found that I needed to be in the States to properly file the petition! Being home is bitter sweet and it has taken me about a month to get back on my feet. I feel so incomplete and alone and it sucks!!! But I must do what needs to be done so we can be together again.
We call and text alot.... and that seems to keep us going and fuel me the next call or text!!! I knew we where going to be apart so its not at-all tramatic just really tuff!!! I just want every one to meet him, it's weird to be home married and no extended family or any friends have meat him!!!...so I just pray and take a deep breath that he is here by next summer to have a party around our 1yr to celebrate him being in America and an open house reception!!! so stay tuned!!!

Monday = Laundry day

 Laundry!!! Well it takes most of the day and I physically do the washing, well my husband helps too! We use a large bucket and a plastic pip to mash/ agitate the garment and on occasion use a  hand scrubber for those tuff stains... The rinse cycle is in another bucket, and using what strength Is left in my arms I attempt to wring out the water as much as possible so it can dry faster on the cloths line....



I tried to trim down the clip and sorry if you cant read what its saying, the video posted small on here. O well, I'm just proud of myself of getting it to work!!!

where we live

Shortly after family left we moved into the house he grew up in and turned the boys fale into our home!!! My mother and sister-in-laws helped clean out the house....we painted the inside of house put down flooring and bought a gas stove to cook on!!! We filled a nice little house into a home!

Married in TONGA!

We decided to get married In Tonga!!! out here you have to be civilly married first, then Sealed within 24hr in the Temple. We schedule the sealing for Saturday and ran into a problem with having a holiday on friday. Both government offices and the temple where closed. With permission from the Temple President, President Shumway, we where civilly married on thursday and Sealed on Saturday...

Tongan culture is to have a huge feast and a dance for the married or soon to marry couple! Sione and I talked and together we wanted to chart our own way of doing things by keeping it simple with just family! It was great to have my parents, my sisters and his sister and aunties from Australia with us in Tonga for our wedding. It was the best surprise for Manu (my mother in-law). They all sacrificed to come out for our celebration, plus a cousin on his side was getting married the same week, so fun that family could make it a double wedding week. We wished Trevor and Angie could come back, but understood their eagerness to get back to America to settle back down to normal life with the most adorable baby girl.

Thursday, our civil marriage 'till death do we part'




We dress in traditional wear and headed to the civil ceremony, everyone crammed into a car and traveled to town!!! It was only Sione, myself, Sione's parents, and my parents squeezed into a small government office to do the all the formalities... there where no 'I does' said only "Yes, i swear by the bible" and a please sign here!!! haha haha!!! so different from what I had pictured and only took 15-20 min!!!









Afterwards we changed out of our civil cloths and started the tour around the island... Latter that night a dance was arraigned by Sione’s aunties. Only the best DJ was hired for the dance!!! Thanks!!! It was so much fun to watch all the family dance and to see so many people come and have fun!!! We spent the next day, Friday, continuing the touring around the island, we found an awesome beach and just chilled out...


June 5 2010

Saturday morning,"I'm getting married for all Eternity..... wah-hoo!!!". The sealing at noon came fast and before I knew it Sione and I where face to face in the Temple! The Rapture of feelings I had dreamed of as a little girl where felt so intensely, I felt Heavenly Father pouring into our hearts His love ... reaching deeper and connecting us to Him in eternal bonds of love!!! I will never forget these deeper understandings that words can not define!!!








That evening we celebrated with a family dinner.... A wide selection of food, everything from Lu Horse, Prawns, to water mellon otai, oh so delicious food!!! my sisters had fun trying all the different kinds of food, even the Lu Horse!!! My sisters made Frog-Eyed pasta salad, that no one really touched.... maybe because of the name!!!














Sione and I spent most of our honeymoon days being tour guides.... so when family left it wasn’t all that sad!!! ok I cried a little... but so ready to focus on being married!!!

Big Q simply Answered

A few weeks went by and the topic came up again of marriage. I asked if we could go to the beach because I wanted to share what was on my mind: Is my heart going to be broken, dose he feel the same as I do!!!... dose he really want to marry me? Are we going to do get married here in Tonga or back in America or, hay why not Australia??? 

we went to the Ha'akame beach to talk... its a great private place to have an open conversation without villagers spying on us... we found a place to sit together and talk!!! We had been sitting for few moments and i started to mumble to find the right words to open the conversation. So I just turned around to face him and asked in a frustrated and almost rejecting tone, "Do you really want to marry me?" His face went calm his eyes centered right on me and said "Yes, I want to marry you." Just then some kids came climbing down the cliff to the beach and our conversation halted as the kids started to play in the water. He turned me to face him again and asked me if I trusted him and I said: "Yeah... I trust you like.... 90%." Then he said: "Lets leave the kids to play and go some where else. I have something i want to ask you." I was bewildered thinking 'what is going on here?' ..... So we climbed to a nice look out of the reef coast-line and stood there. We stood there and I asked him what question did he want to ask me... He turned me to look at him and he said " I loved you and I want to know if will marry me" .... i knew it was coming but I was still in shock; this was not how I imagined it would be ( nothing ever is) . . . ha-ha.... In my stunned state, I stood there and he said; "Don’t give me your answer right now, i want you to think about it, I want to make sure that marring me is what you want too!!!!" I was beaming from ear to ear!!! I knew my answer and he knew me well enough that it would be best for me to rally think it over!

So, I spent the next few days in turmoil, tiring to sort out my feelings, measure them against logic, and seeking Gods support and guidance on the matter.... So, a few days latter I called him and said I want to talk. I was picturing a nice late afternoon romantic conversation on Temple Grounds where we share our feelings and such…. well close: I had a hard time finding a way over to Ha'akame. Once I got there it was already dark and it had been raining! we drove over to the Temple in a van and we we parked in front of the Temple. I was nervous, excited and bummed that I didn't have the perfect setting to give my answer! We sat there in a bit of silence, so i just opened heart and out come my feelings... "I have been thinking of the question you asked me .... and yes, I will marry you!!!" And that was it, simply said and by my word!!! It wasn't the romantic rapture i had dreamed of as a little girl, but the man he is every thing i have been praying to find and share my life with!!! There where no engagement rings to show our devotion or to prove our love for each other only our word!!! I latter explained that i'm not the typical girl that wants a big rock hanging on her finger rather in my love for nature I had wanted something natural and hand made!!!


Engagement and Pictures!
I thought I was going to have time to make and send out wedding invites so we took engagement pictures and we had a tons of fun!!!! I did make an invite for local friends and family in Tonga to come to the Temple Sealing... so here are a few of my favorites!