Happy 1st Anniversary

Isnt it amazing? Its been a year already?

It doesnt seem like yesterday that I was driving to Luton to pick him up from the first trip back since his visa expired. Let alone 19 months since he arrived back from working on the cruise ships.

All those years of hopes and dreams and tears and sadness as well as all the stress seem to have quite literally faded away. We did it. We had a love so strong that even when there was not the ability to do anything about it other than to call each other and email and chat and believe in the future. A future together.

I remember the night when the government was due to vote on whether they would allow the equality bill. Dusan called me from the cruise ship about 2 weeks before and we discussed the fact that, the law could be about to change to let us finally be together again.

The bill passed and when he visited some months later we discussed the opportunities. I fished as to whether if I were to ask him the question he would likely accept.

When he visited in 2006 it was just like it was was yesterday that we were together. We had an amazing 2 weeks together and I knew then, one day I would marry that man.

In October I flew to Zagreb to see him again before he went back on another Cruise contract and had a few surprises in store. Including the Diamon Mans engagement ring I had in my pocket. It was official, we were enagaged. How does one tell ones parents that one is getting married and the future Groom is away at sea? Still we did. Dusan went back to Carnival and worked another contract. Both of us hating each day appart more and more. Then the countdown began. The number of days until his return. The whole stress with Immigration and them almost not letting him into the UK. Then the hardest part of all. Getting the Home Office Approval. To marry a Non EU Citizen you have to have a "Certificate of Approval" from the Home Office. They needed proof that this was not a scam just to get a visa. Thankfully we had more than enough with the Photos, and telephone accounts, Emails, Blog, letters of support from friends, eventually they had to conceed that we were truly in love and officially allowed to have our big Day.

Then Mother and Father offered to have the event at their beautifull home.

A year ago today (Well less a few hours, its late now), we were getting dressed and ready to become Husband and Husband.

All that stress and worry and applying for permission to do something that comes natural. Love doesnt need a permit or a certificate. If love is true and strong then love is the thing that binds. It bound Dusan and I many years ago and binds us today. We loved each other so much we would not let anything come between it.

We consider ourselves lucky now. We have, after all, gone through a lot more before marriage than some couple do in the first few years. But we know that we belong together. I still cant believe that its been a year. A year of being married. Truth in the saying that "Time flies when you are having fun".

So we celebrated today by going for lunch in Soho. Nothing too extravagant, Balans for lunch. But we had some champagne cocktails and a two course lunch before Dusan had to go to work and headed over to the gym.

Its gone so fast it must have been I cant believe it. So as our first year ends and our second one begins I wonder what adventures, challenges, thrills we will unfold.

But for now I will end with a quote from a film I love. Moulin Rouge. "The Greatest gift you'll ever learn is to love and be loved in return".

Night night and God Bless. xx