Posted by Jei Ann

All our family and friends would know a bit of our love story - that we did start very young and that we would already be past a decade and two as a couple by our wedding day.

We’ve been together for almost 12 years - not including the 4-year courtship, and both of us are now 25 years old. You do the maths and work out - yes, he professed his love for me when we were 10 and I "succumbed" to the Persistent three months before turning 14.

We were young and we did get in trouble. My mum was the director of our school, which my auntie owned and we were constantly talked about inside and outside the teachers' faculty. We were voted Prom King and Queen in our senior year and mum was also present the entire night of the prom.

With that beginning, you'd be able to tell that ours is not an ordinary love story. 

We endured long-distance relationship for over six years. When I decided to move to Melbourne for university, we only saw each other 4 weeks in one year on average - proof that our relationship was not based on the physical and superficial but founded on prayers and a deep level of trust and commitment to our dream of someday becoming husband and wife.

We held on to the memorabilia we have gathered during the early years of our relationship - the love letters, notes left at our high school lockers, many poems he wrote for me, photos and his artworks, music we've made for each other, and all the experiences we shared that made us value what we had even more.

I had the opportunity to study in Boston and although apprehensive to let me go as I didn't have any family or close friend in that side of the US, Edward trusted and supported. With a 12-hour time difference between Boston and Manila, communication for half a year didn’t become an issue. We compromised. We learned to understand that true love is never about self. Our relationship constantly served as an inspiration and never a distraction.

I’m convinced our relationship is God-breathed as I see how our commitment and passion for each other was cascaded down to our families, friendships, studies and careers. 

Ecclesiastes 3:11 comes to mind—“Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” 

We patiently waited for God's perfect timing and the great thing is that we know for certain that the best is yet to come!