2018 Official Roll Call!

[Michelle]

ROLL CALL!

If you see this thread, reply with an update on your relationship/life I’d love to know how you are doing whether or not you post regularly. New members, please post too!!!

My update: As many of you know, Frank and I are married and will celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary in June! Time flies! Next month will be 12 years since we decided to be in a relationship !

We have 2 boys: Devon 2.5 years old and Jason who turns 1 year old this week! We still have our miniature poodle, Henry, who is 8 years old. He isn’t fond of our 2 new additions haha, but he puts up with them quite well. Devon is a wild child and Jason is super sweet and a momma’s boy. We live in a small home near the coast in Maine. We really enjoy our life here and can’t wait to take advantage of the spring/summer weather to get out of the house and do more fun things with the boys. Currently there are blizzard conditions outside and the forecast says we’ll have 18-22” of snow by tomorrow.

[Lio]

That's a great idea

So.. I'm in a relationship with a lovely Korean girl, Jieun, who lived in Seoul until the end of my last visit, in November 2017 - she now lives in another city which is part of Gyeonggi-do province, about one hour and a half away from Seoul. I still live in my small city one hour away from Paris, France, which makes us be 8980 km apart. Our fourth visit is scheduled for next month : I'll arrive at Seoul Incheon Intl Airport on April 15th and will be with her during two weeks. We also will go to Japan (again) in the middle of my visit : we'll visit Kyoto and Osaka, in Kansai, where she didn't go yet. Once we'll be back in Korea, we'll celebrate my birthday together, a few days before I'll go back to France.

I get along well with her family despite the language barrier, and she gets along with mine as well. She's planning to visit me during my summer holidays, in July and August ! That will make us be able to celebrate our two years anniversary, in July, and her birthday, in August.

That's it for now.

[Littlewhiteflower]

I like the idea..

I've been with my boyfriend for two years and 3 months. We got engaged at Christmas time this year.
We live in the same country, but some 2500 kms apart. He's moving up North in a bit. So, the distance will be greater, but I'm going to go spend the summer with him. I bought my flight ticket last weekend. So, I'm excited. It's going to be 4 or 5 hours of flight and 10 long hours of bus, but I should survive haha. Some people have it harder.

Right now, I'm studying full time and working part time. My SO is working more than full time and we manage it not to badly. It's a bit hard because we lived full time together in 2017. To be back LD is difficult, but manageable. I can't wait to see him again.

Our plan to close the distance changed lately. So, I'm not sure whether or not we are going to get married anytime soon. I had in mind 2019, but it's more going to look like 2020. I don't want to get married before we close the distance. So, We will see. I try to live one day at a time.

It's also snowing here (I'm close from the Maine, just like Michelle, except in Canada). I'm getting sick of the snow and can't wait for the weather to warm up a bit.

[kittyxuchiha11]

Absolutely love this too, great idea for getting caught up on everyone's lives

Well for starters, I'm not in the longest of distance ldr right now as I'm currently in my last year of university which i finish in May. I'm studying in a different city from where i've lived my whole life and am loving being away from home and having some freedom. I've been with my SO for six months, and we're currently only 18.5 miles apart so we get to see each other every week/every other week (which stills takes like 30 minutes by metro and 25 minutes of walking somehow :P ) We were originally planning on going back to long distance when i moved back home, but since i actually really like this change of scenery, we might possibly be moving in together at the end of June!!! (fingers crossed!)

I'm currently doing my dissertation for uni just now (which is a radio drama I've written, woo for not having to do an essay) and am super stressed as I have that, my other classes work, and i've just been appointed lead presenter of the universities radio stations LGBT show so I have sooooooooo much planning and content to get for that. Apart from the usual uni work stress and worries about how things are gong to go once I graduate, life is pretty good right now. Hopefully going to meet all of SO's family at Easter if they do their usual family meal thing they do every year. And I'm hopefully taking SO back to my home town to stay for a few days at the end of April, since we (well mostly I) hope we move back to Scotland eventually (You have to pay for prescriptions in England and get them for free in Scotland, that's my main argument to SO of why we need to move back there :P )

[erwin1973]

Yeah, nice idea!
Well, Eve and I are - sadly - still nevermets after 18½ month (exactly, today). We have had our ups and downs, but the ups are great and I truly believe she's the one for me.
She has a great daughter to be proud of who is happy to call me 'dad', and I do have a son from a previous marriage.
We plan to meet in September, but we're not sure if that will happen - some things might change, but we are still hoping for it.
Every day we chat and sometimes it's sweet nothings, sometimes it's about us, our intentions, our plans, or just daily life. We're doing great, I think, and we're ever so much in love with each other. Hope to close the distance over time, when the feeling after the first meeting is still great - and I don't doubt it will be.
I myself am having some personal problems that I am working on very, very hard and only today, after a week of being a total mess, I decided to once again go for working on that. Somehow I woke up with that decision in my mind. Eve will be happy, to. It hurts her she can't help me, just as I can't help her with her things - except listening.
As I said, we're doing great and in about 40 minutes I expect her to cam with me. That one hour is the best of the week!!

[Caro1]

Hi everybody!
Great idea! I do read much more on here than I post, so here we go:
I initially met my SO in 2009 during my school-year-long high school exchange to the United States. We have kept in touch, became best friends and during a second study abroad trip of mine to the US, fell in love with each other. We got to spend the first six months of our relationship together in person and lived together too.

After that semester, I had to go back to Germany. I finished my Bachelor's, and started a Master's degree in Germany, as I had a contract obligation to an employer that paid the Bachelor's tuition. I decided to pay for the Master's myself to avoid having an even longer obligation to that company (I would have had to pay back the covered tuition cost). I'm working full time, and had classes at night and on the weekends. I'm finally at the point of "only" having to work full time, write and turn in my master thesis. The writing however isn't going as well as planned. I do have a problem with procrastination.....

We FaceTime every single day for as long as possible as our schedule allows. We are very fortunate to have spent a lot of time in person together considering the great amount of distance and price of flights. My SO has visited me twice a year since we started dating. A shorter about 9-14 day visit in the spring or fall as well as a longer 2-3 month stay in the summer. As I have much less time off from work and college, I've only been able to visit once for a month since then. But ultimately, I will be the one relocating to close the distance.

So now we are deeply buried in US-visa research and paper work and hope to close the distance soon!

[beester]

I'm one of the newbies on this forum. But I have to say I check in from time to time and although I'm not a regular poster I do love reading all of your stories and questions.

Great idea Michelle!

I've met my SO in November and we're a couple since me waving her goodbye in Venice when she left for a year to Sudan, working for a NGO.

In the meanwhile we have met again in Istanbul mid February (it was planned that we would meet on Thursday 15 Feb, but she surprised me with an incredible Valentine's gift being a day early). These 5 days were incredible, and although the goodbye was very hard, and the first week or so felt depressing, we are both rebounding, and happy.

Since travelling into Sudan is not very easy, and it's a Sharia country (ie no contact between non married males and females) we have to opt for travel. To make it easier for her, and also as part of a big adventure we are planning to spend quite a lot of time together this year in Africa. I've managed to arrange with my work to get some days of leave without pay, and we'll be able to meet every 3-7 weeks until December of this year. I'll also meet some of her work colleagues during these trips and some of her friends from Italy.

In 4 weeks we'll meet again in Dubai, then 4 weeks later in Zimbabwe, 4 weeks later in Ethiopia, 7 weeks later in Tanzania (climbing Kilimanjaro), in September (not yet booked) in Madagascar and then in November (not yet booked) somewhere in Europe for a short while... This costs a lot of money, organising, planning, talking and getting things arranged both with our employers but also together.

Then in December she'll return to Italy, and hopefully we can close the distance. This is in any case our idea, to start living together as soon as possible after her return to Italy. This will involve quite some discussion with my employer and of course me leaving behind my network, friends and family... not easy... let's see how it goes. In any case the distance between Belgium and Italy is not so great, and practically speaking there is no bureaucratic hassle with VISA etc (reading these forums has been an eyeopener... reading your stories about how difficult it can be to arrange such things).

I love her very much, and she loves me... so we are committed to try to make this work. And if we do we can tell others (rather bore them with) our story how our relationship started, with 3 quick hours in a Venice airport.

[kittyo9]

I can't believe it's been more than a year since my SO and I started dating! We just had our... seventh... no... eighth visit! That's a lot of plane tickets (and train tickets, and gas...). We have been SUPER fortunate that we've been able to spend as much time together as we have. Unfortunately we won't be able to have as many visits this year as we'll be a little more restricted on time. The good news is that I feel a little more comfortable going without seeing him for longer periods of time, because we've spent enough time together at this point that I don't feel like I have to worry.

Bden is doing well in school. He has another year to go, but right now he's on midterms and waiting to hear back from some employers about summer jobs. Fingers crossed that he hears back soon-- he really needs it, both for the experience and for the money.

I'm still plugging along at work. We just had a massive layoff and my boss was let go, so I'm barely treading water as I get more and more responsibilities dumped on me. There are a lot of things I just... don't know how to do. Bden has been super supportive through the whole process. In addition to this, we had tons of SNOW last week while he was here visiting, resulting in power/internet outages on multiple days. We were really lucky that neither of his flights were delayed especially long or cancelled. It was so good to have him here with me during that time, though-- he's always very calm and comforting, and I didn't have to worry about not being able to communicate with him, since he was right there! I also got a snow day on Wednesday, which meant I got to spend a whole extra day at home with him. <3

Things are going slowly on the immigration front. I have to get my education credentials assessed and it's going to take FOREVER. Apparently a few years ago it only took a few weeks; now it takes a few months, and that's after they've confirmed receipt all your documents in the mail. I submitted everything a month ago and they still haven't confirmed receipt (this is normal). I did recently get my final English exam results, though. After sending the writing section back for regrading, I now (finally) have a score high enough to get max points for me in the Comprehensive Ranking System. Hooray, I proved that I can speak my native language.

[Allurial]

I'm in a year and a half long relationship with my current SO who lives only about 1,500 miles away. It's been a tough couple of months for me with fracturing my foot, and my grandmothers cancer becoming worse, but SO has always been by my side. I haven't seen him since October - and likely won't see him until May or July but next trip he's paying so I have no worries on that part!! Work for him has been very up and down so we don't talk about the future as much as we used to, but thats okay. We are both secure enough to know that things may change but we will get there one day.

[C.C.]

I am so so tired, I have no idea if I can make this sound coherent. It's a wonderful thread and I have been wanting to respond from the moment it was created

I am in a relationship with a Finn as you all know. We had had an awful rocky start. We were on and off for some time. Then at some point we had decided to go through a planned visit despite us having broken up (while shortening the trip). We should have never been in a relationship without having met up, we are just not the type for that. Anyway when we met, we felt how much we had actually loved each other and just how right it all felt. So we decided to give it a try and we were super serious about it this time :3

We have been together for 7 months since then, I know it's not much but it feels like a lot for us, especially with our history. We have known each other for more than 4 years and have had feelings for each other for 2.5 years! Anyway, I am glad we did this, I know it's against what's considered "correct" but we work so well together now. We had another trip this winter and a lengthier one too and we were amazing. I just love him a lot.

As for right now, we are gonna meet again in summer, till then we are both busy and dealing with our own personal lives. I have super heavy semester, for example, and it's been already killing me. I am excited at the same time because I genuinely love what I am studying, though. Anyway, we have gotten so much better at stress management and taking care of each other that I just feel content with all the stress too. Also don't get me wrong, the changes didn't happen all at once, we had been actively working on some of our issues from previous tries too still and we have some of them still lingering but we have addressed each one of them and made quite a bit of progress on them too! This just makes me believe even more how the relationships are huge effort and hard work and once you find the right one, they are worth putting that effort for!

I am finishing my studies in 1.5 years, we might shorten the distance then if I move for master's where I have been planning to. So I am excited for our future and patient while waiting for it.

[autumn1790]

2018 has been a whirlwind so far for me. I'm actually now in Minnesota, but my heart is still in WI so I haven't changed my profile. But that's increased our distance to about 400ish miles. I lost my car in a winter accident, and haven't built up a monetary reserve enough to replace it, so we've been reliant on trains and Facebook rideshares (check out the local university groups, you can get an awesome deal!) But we've been extremely lucky to see each other once a month so far...not sure if that will continue with money not always being the most accessible. I'm in nursing school and he's completing his master's in computer science. We've also gotten to the point of what Allurial said...not talking really about the future because we'll get there eventually. I just like to take it one visit at a time. I hope he can come next month for my 21st birthday

[Ejoriah]

After the end of my marriage, I tried online dating for a while and am in a relationship with a wonderful man I met 10 months ago (to the date!). We are not living together but if things keep going well we will move in together after my lease on this apartment ends, which will be in early 2019. I live by myself with my dog and have learned to enjoy my independence

[RWhiz]

Well I'm a really new guy to this forum, and maybe my situation isn't nearly like the ones I'm reading about on here. So this will be an introduction as much as an update. I'm 49 and divorced from my wife of 20 years, we had a great marriage but the relationship ended at the right time. I tried online dating and I got involved with a great girl up in WA state, I live in Tahoe so it's really not that far huh?�� Anyway we've been together for about 8 months or so, and couldn't be happier, haha unless we were closer. we are planning on moving in together, and I found this forum while looking for advice on transitioning from a LDR to a domestic relationship. We are both professional people, and fly to see each other about twice a month. We've found that 3 weeks is too long! I might get shot for that statement here!

Anyway I want to share a bit about us, we both left marriages about the same time, and dated a bit before meeting each other but nothing serious. When we first started chatting we were instantly very attracted to each other, we met up soon after and the fireworks were one! Now we are a little thankful that there was the distance because we feel we would have gone way too fast! The distance made us take our time rather than rush together and blow up soon after. Anyway she's getting ready to move to my area in late June or early July, we're planning on buying a house together and see where this adventure takes us!

[Kerry92]

2017 was a loooong year for me. Lots of moving of friends and family. Health issues and work stresses but it was also the year I met my baby
I was never a fan of online dating due to the horror stories that I had read and heard about but boy am I glad I took the plunge!
I met my boyfriend on a metal community dating website back in March 2017 (my first and only attempt at dating online) lol. We automatically clicked and I knew he was the right one for me. After months of talking and getting to each other we made it official and made the first journey to meet him in person. Scotland to America...the flight can be killer lol.

Fast forward to today: We are still happily together and in 19days he will be here to meet my familly for the first time and see my home town of Glasgow! I cant wait!!

[Harlequin]

I first joined this forum when I was in an international LDR. Years later, I met someone on OKC, and we got married this past June. We have our own house and a few pets, and we're just enjoying married life.
I don't post here much anymore, but I do lurk often.