Three

Three years ago today, you committed yourself to me

You promised to love me, protect me, and stay with me in sickness and in health

You made me part of your life

Three years ago today, you made me the happiest person in the planet

Happy Anniversary, my dearest!

Not many people know that we've actually been married three years--not two.  It was no big secret at all but we just thought it wasn't necessary to offer the information if people don't ask. Well, guess what--I'm offering it now.

Right after we got engaged, we immediately set the date for our church wedding in Cebu. But knowing how difficult it is to comply with requirements without being physically present, we decided to take care of all the pre-requisites here including the marriage certificate, church permits, seminars, etc.  Hence, two weeks after our engagement and exactly a year before we were married in church, we were civilly wed at the Marin Civic Center in San Rafael.  Why we had to do it that quickly? We wanted our civil wedding and our church wedding to be on the same day.

We also had to consider that at that time, we were both waiting for our green cards which were processed under two different applications. I was going to get mine quicker if we processed the applications as a married couple.

We thought the idea of getting married that quickly was crazy and up until the last minute before the wedding, I still wasn't sure it was the right thing to do.  It took months before I got it to sink in even after we did it already.  

It was a Friday and a day just like the ordinary.  We both went to work, left the office early, showed up at the Civic Center to sign the paperwork and said our "I do's" in front of the Deputy Commissioner.  We had my parents as our witnesses.  We thought it was going to be that quick and would feel meaningless, but we were so wrong.  It felt most special, most intimate, most magical it was almost surreal.  The Commissioner said some of the most beautiful words it brought me to tears.  At that very moment all the doubts disappeared, and we knew--we were convinced that it was the right thing to do.  In fact, it was one of the best decisions we ever made.

Right after the wedding, we joined some friends and went camping in Mendocino County.  Yeah--we spent our first night as a married couple in the woods!  Quite romantic, actually!  Exactly a year later, we had the wedding of our dreams--in Cebu where we first met, surrounded by our family and friends.

So there you go--it's been three years!  Three years of blissful marriage ("hehe, bag-o pa man"), three years of getting to know each other further and loving each other more in the process, three years of both joys and pains.  Our marriage is by no means perfect, but we make each day count and I think that's what matters.

There was only one thing we regret that day--that we didn't take any pictures.  No pictures to show our little one.  What we have are just good memories of that very special day.

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Photo:  One of our engagement photos taken by Chay Tan Ting.