I am really getting married

I wanted to post about my up coming marriage because there is a lot of talk about me not getting married and why I am here.
I wanted to blog about my journey through this stage in my life and thus far I have not said anything about my living here in Turkey but I have only blogged about going places here.
  Let me start from the beginning. Are you ready for a story? Pop some popcorn, grab a cold cola and start reading :)
  Way back in 2006, the latter part, I was browsing a web site called travbuddy. I saw this guy  on my friends profile. Her name was min. His name was not Zippy but as I promised, I will not divulge his name on my blogs. (unless he agrees otherwise).
  I was reading all his blogs about his home and how he was a soldier in Van, Turkey and all his pics he had... I was really awe struck. But I suppressed those feelings because I was dating a man. And I readily thought that this guy whose blogs I was reading very well was a fraud and there is no one on Earth like he... etc etc.
  Months later: 8 months to be exact, I was heart broken (still not by Zippy) but went into Zippy's profile and requested him to be my friend on a social network where people talk and are friends. He and I were emailing back and forth and we were really enjoying our talks. I actually have kept a lot and to this day I have probably three hundred of his emails to me.
 We talked about everything and nothing. He knew that I was going through a break up and knew when I moved. He knew when I was out on a date and knew about my dates with other guys. We were friends online. Zippy and I were sometimes talking serious. But I was starting to have feelings for someone I could not see. This was after a couple of years of being online with him.
   By September of 2008 I talked to my dad. I told him I thought about this guy online I had never seen. My dad was curious and mom thought it was really kind of scary and she never said crazy but I could tell it was surreal for her for me to start telling them that I wanted to go to Turkey and see what feelings I had for someone that I never saw before.
   I of November 2008 stopped seeing other men and had not any friends on Facebook that I did not know from High School to show this guy thousands of miles away that I was serious about wanting to meet him. By May of 2009 I started wearing a ring because I wanted to keep guys from approaching me, and talked about Zippy as though I was going to marry him and yet I still never saw him face to face. By September of 2009 I had grown in my mind and heart to a point where either I saw him or we had to stop talking online. I told him once I can not date a computer. I felt that way ad felt like how can I be calling someone I and wanting to see someone and talk to someone I have never seen face to face. We talked about a lot of deep things because really... I am pretty intellectual and I was really enchanted with how he was and I liked him but honestly face to face or nothing at that point. It was two years and I could not live in front of a computer and phone bills were outrageous too. Also, I felt like it was only fair for Zippy too.
My dad loved or seemed really keen on the idea of me going to Turkey to see what this relationship was. My mom was not only a big skeptic but I think although she never said anything she still really strongly disliked the idea. Her thoughts were Why Turkey? you could get killed there. I am sure she did not want me to go.

   There were some really hardships in my life and I will blog about those another day, but I did come here thinking I would only be here 6 weeks and that was the plan.I have found in my life that nothing goes to my plan. Sometimes is a wonderful happy surprise and sometimes I hate the not so fun things that life does that I never plan.
   One of the happy things that was planned was Zippy upon meeting and finding if he really loves me and I love him would go back with me to USA because I was working at a Flower Shop and the owners son said he would get Zippy a job in the warehouse and if not that was ok because he was going to help me get a good position at the company headquarters. The part of the plan we did not plan was three days after arriving we knew that we were deeply in love and Zippy got his passport, I got an email from the same boss from the Flower Shop Company telling me I am fired. The worst part was not the fact that I was fired. I was ok with that, but his wife was a dear and trusted even a best friend of mine and although I wanted to continue friendships her husband my former boss said some cruel and horrible things to me that really hurt and for some reason she has not spoken to me since. That part sucked. What were we going to do??
  So, not having a job in USA and not having money forced me to make other decisions... What do I do now?
  After hours upon hours of talking to my dad and mom and praying... and crying my boyfriend at the time: Zippy asked me a few days before the date for me to return to USA... If I would please stay with him and his family. I found that I loved him. He loved me.
  A few months later I was more accustomed to the culture here and Zippy's brother, (which in real life their names rhyme so here in the blog I take it upon myself to have their names rhyme) Jippy, helped me find a job teaching English to a bunch of Turkish kids and adults. I will blog about why I want to leave the company later...

ANYWAY

Now, we are getting married. I was told and promised that we would get married this coming June. I was told this last year. Last December I was asked by Zippy if I would be angry if we did not get married this coming June I responded with no however ı thought in my mind... Fine::: I will go to USA then in June.
You may wonder why oh why are you leaving and coming back in June? See... Upon not getting a ticket for March.. Many airports were closed and a lot of flights were cancelled last winter. Now there are more chance of me getting back here when I should be and sometimes even a little earlier than scheduled time if weather is good.
  Why are we not married?
 There are cultural aspects of getting married here that I did not consider when I came and things are more slow here. There are Traditions and things that I really dislike that I did not bother thinking about when falling in love with a very Turkish man. But, I love him and he loves me. The biggest thing is he is good to me and I have never seen any man treat me as well as he has: for being non family.
 This world is filled with sad and heart ache and pain and people divorcing and I have found someone tha loves me I love him. I found out from my adult students that the divorce rate is higher amoung Turkish couples than other couples. I will blog about my observation on that later.
For now I want to say I really am getting married I promise.
I will write more about my cultural life here and ı will write about my journey to a Turkish Wedding with a little American flare to it because Heaven knows... I am American!!!
To all my friends and anyone reading this... You will see a date soon: I will announce before October... I have a feeling that I will announce the date upon returning from USA. Zippy says it is about time, and I have been thinking that since the moment I got off the plane and saw his face

:)