With every other girl, I always had that feeling inside me that something wasn't right... Or that I wasn't 100% confident, or something was missing. And sometimes I would try to convince myself that I'm being ridiculous, most people thought I was being picky. Sometimes I knew for sure there were problems, and yet I wanted to stick with it no matter what, because I hate giving up. That good will come after struggle.

But with her, there was no doubt. No struggling. I didn't have to spend massive amounts of energy convincing her that this was the right thing. I didn't have to convince myself. My heart and my mind felt completely at peace. It simply felt just right.

The next day I met the whole family. Parents, uncles, aunts, grand mother, cousins, etc... And two days later had a serious conversation with her parents. They told me what important things they wanted to be in her life (like religion), and I promised them that I would take good care of their daughter. I asked for their daughter's hand in marriage, and they gave me their blessing.

After a tearful goodbye at the airport, I flew back home and called up my parents to tell them the deal. The thing is that I had told them so many times in the past that I found the one, and it never panned out, so I stopped keeping them up to date as relatives and family were starting to not take me seriously. I don't blame them. But at the same time, I only want to make this decision once. The right decision. My parents told me that I should have gotten married while I was there, which was a shocker because I thought they wanted to do the full background check and all that stuff. Maybe as I've gotten older, they are starting to trust my decisions; or perhaps they were afraid this one might not work out either.

We made plans to get married ASAP, because we didn't want a minute to go by without each other. 3 months later we were wed in Singapore. It was such short notice that nobody from my side could make it, except my dad.

Touchdown...

We've been married since September 24th, 1999 and it's been going great ever since. We bought a house, and she's working on her MBA. The first few months had some ups and downs, mostly ups, as we got adjusted to each other. I did the typical guy stuff of not calling home when I'm going to be super late, because I haven't had to do that for years. That kind of thing didn't even occur to me. But after that, it's been ups all the way.

That girl who turned out to be my wife is my soul mate Juliana. I find it amazing to think what if she hadn't been surfing the web that day. What if I didn't have my ad up that day she was surfing. I say this on my website, and I'll say it now that I thank the Matrimonials.com service. If it weren't for that, we would have not found each other being half a world apart.

I guess I should thank the people who helped push the internet in the first place. The Internet is a great way to find someone because it will put you in touch with more people than your friends and family ever can. It's a great way to get to know someone. Without the pressures of a real meeting and others being present, you can get to know the person at your own pace and get to know them better than you could from 1 or 2 short real meetings.

Since Then...

Since then, we've had our story published in the London Times, Glamour magazine, Arabia.com, and the San Jose Mercury News. Primarily because I'm so public about my experiences, people doing articles about this kind of thing easily find it. But I'm really public about it because during this whole thing I met a lot of people that were nervous to utilize this great tool to their advantage, and by talking about my experiences hopefully I can convince others to use it as well. I have a lot of single friends and it would make me really happy if a really great spouse was taking care of them.

Also I know what it's like to be lonely, and feeling like there's no hope. I've been there. It's ok to feel whatever you feel, but it's not ok to give up. It's ok to take a breather to gather up some energy before continuing, but if you think about anyone you know who's hooked up what are the odds of them meeting their spouse? It's always one in a billion, what are the odds that they just happened to be in the same place at the same time... Or same school, or same friend that introduced them, etc... The chances are so remote it makes winning a lottery a good bet. Yet, it happens every day. There must be some aspect of fate, regardless of what religion you follow. There's a match for everyone. Find them!