Iwan & Jolly

A story of Jolly...

Once upon a time...

I was standing in a line at a boat dock after one hour bus from Venice Treviso Airport, attempting to reach to San Marco - the oldest and most famous quarter of Venice. There were two waterbus lines, I didn’t know which one I should take. Turning around, I saw an old couple standing behind who looked just like the locals. So, I asked them which boat line I should take to get to San Marco. The wife gently answered me: 

- Sorry, we don’t know. It is our first time to Venice.
- Oh, so you are not Italian?
- No, we are from Holland.
- Oh, really? I just flew from Amsterdam to here too. I was there for a couple of days. I thought you were Italian…

It was in early of March 2015, my very first trip to Europe. It was initially a business trip to Holland with my friend who had organized business trip for a Vietnamese group to meet with some agricultural companies in Holland. And as planned, after business meetings we would continue our itinerary for pleasure together, from Amsterdam to Venice, then from Venice down to Rome, and from Rome flying to Paris before we would fly back to Hanoi. However, for an urgent business case my friend had to fly back to Hanoi earlier, leaving me alone with our “pleasure plan”. I was so upset to know and almost canceled my trip to fly back with her. My friend was scolding at me: “It has been your dream to travel to Europe. Now you are here, why should you give up? I will book a flight for you to Venice and you just go on!”. I know for her it could be easier as she had travelled back as forth to Europe. I felt like a child abandoned in the middle of a crowded market. How was I going to survive? Apart from the winter cold and the strong wind which felt like sharp cuts onto my “tropical” skin, I found myself such an inexperienced tourist struggling with directions, public transports and…Western foods!

Saying goodbye to the old Dutch couple at the boat dock, I took the waterbus line 2 (if my memory still serves me right) along the Grand Canal. Dragging my “piggy-sized” suitcase through a maze of stony paths and alleys of countless restaurants, asking from time to time those waiters whom I saw on the way for the direction to my hotel. They kept greeting me “Konnichiwa!”. I was not surprised, because since I was a child, my parents used to call me “Mitsubishi”. They must have known that they had failed to create me with a pure Vietnamese face.

Eventually, I made it to the hotel I had booked. “ANTICO PANADA” - Here I am! After finishing check-in procedure, I turned around and saw the same Dutch couple walking in the hotel entrance towards the reception desk. We looked at each other with a pleasure surprise. At that certain moment was there a very word flashing across my mind – “Coincidence”. We should have known that we had the same direction and we could have taken the same boat together.

The hotel was small enough to allow me and the Dutch couple chances of encountering each other with smiles and small greetings during our stay, either over the breakfast, through the hotel lobby, or even at the reception. Just like one afternoon when I was complaining with the receptionist about there was no complimentary mineral water in my room (as a girl whose career background also came from hospitality industry, I was used to a higher service standard), and that I had to pay extra if I required. This time the wife was also there and she heard my conversation. She then asked me to follow her to her room as she wanted to give me some water. As we reached to her room, she filled the water tap into a blue metal bottle and gave it to me. I was a bit shocked, tap water?! “In Europe you can just drink water out of the tap. You can keep this bottle and fill water everywhere, so you don’t need to buy water anymore.” – she said. It was interesting for me to know about drinkable water from the tap and such concern of a “stranger” helped comfort the “abandoned child’’. Indeed, that blue bottle saved me a lot during following days of my trip in Europe.

Or like that evening, when I was sitting at the hotel lobby after an “ugly” pizza which I could not even finish from a big pizzeria restaurant where people had to line up just to get a table (yes, I mean it could have been a good reviewed restaurant). The Dutch couple were also sitting at the lobby. I guessed they were also relaxing after a “beautiful” dinner somewhere. The wife then approached to me and asked if I liked to go for a walk together. I felt a bit strange yet special that she would leave her husband alone at the lobby to accompany me. We were wandering around small alleys and then ended up sitting on a bank in St. Mark’s Square, which is not so far from our hotel. From there we exchanged names and somehow had a little tiny soul-chat.

- Jolly, don’t you feel lonely when you travel alone? – Ank asked.
Her question was just like an arrow aiming straight into the middle of my heart. Well, don’t misunderstand. In Vietnamese expression we would say…it is like someone who know an “annoying” itchy point on your body and they scratched just exactly over it and that actually feels…good!

- Uhmm…,yes I do. It is a mixed feeling. I feel lonely yet at the same time also grateful because I could make it here to Venice, alone! Especially when I was standing in front of such amazing sceneries that I thought I could only see on movies (I was reflecting the film “The Tourist” with Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie) and I had no company to “wow!” out or to immediately release my excitement with… – I replied.

Indeed, my heart those days was stuffed with mixed emotions. An excitement of an exploring tourist, a gratefulness of a girl who was achieving her dream of Europe but somehow tinted with a lonesomeness deep down in her soul. They contrasted each other and constantly tended to burst out.

- Don’t you have a boyfriend to travel with? – Ank continued.
- Maybe i haven’t met the right man yet, but I always believe that he will come to me at the right time.
- Hey Jolly, do you know how I met Ton, my husband?
- Yes, please tell me.
- That night my close friend asked me to join a local dancing party for young people. Normally I wouldn’t like to go because I could not dance but she kept convincing me and I agreed. So we went to that party. While I was standing alone at a table and watching people dancing, there came a man towards me with a beer bottle on his hand. Putting his beer firmly on the table, he asked me like a boss: “Could you watch my beer? I need to go to toilet”. When he came back we started to talk, and I got to know that he was one member from the board who organized that party. In the end of that evening he walked me home. And it was how we first met…

We were laughing with pleasure about Ank’s love story. She couldn’t hide her excitement when telling me that Ton had secretly booked the Venice trip for them as she has wished after a very long-time. I can’t recall how many things we was talking about but it seemed only us remaining in the square as it’s getting later. It’s also time Ank needed to go back to Ton. She took out a handbook and asked me for my email address so that we could stay in touch, and I also got hers on my iPhone’s note. We then took some selfies at the square together to keep nice memory before walking back to the hotel. Ton was still sitting there at the lobby waiting for Ank. It was my last night in Venice and the day after I would get on a train to head to Rome. The Dutch couple would stay for a few days more or so. As soon as they knew I was leaving the morning after, without any postpone the wife stepped to me and said: “I need to give you a good bye kiss because you are such a sweet girl!”. Now I don’t remember if it was a typical Dutch greeting with 3 kisses, but I won’t forget the kindness of this couple, and of course their love story.

(to be continued...)

A story of Jolly...

(continued...)

So, it was Ank’s destined evening that day, and Ton is the soul-partner who "IS" chosen for Ank prior to her perception. It is one from thousands of romantic love stories that you could imagine of how people first meet. No matter how it starts, how it progresses, it eventually leads you to possibilities of finding your true love.

I was thinking,

• What if close friend of Ank hadn’t come to her with the idea to attend the dance party together that night? 

• What if Ank had chosen to stay home? If she would still meet Ton who later would become her husband?

Indeed, inner to my soul, I always believe that the right man of my life already “IS” chosen for me. Yes, I meant it – an “IS” of the “Present Tense”, not in the “Past”, the "Present Perfect" or the “Future” tense which could be probably used in reference of time for this event. In the Book of Exodus from the Old Testament, God introduced himself to Moses: “I am who I AM”. The name “I AM” did reveal His eternal nature. In Revelation 22:13, God said: “I am the Alpha and the Omega*, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End”. I would understand God exists in the status of “Here” and “Now” without limitation by our human dimension of Time. So be as his plan! I meant, His good plan for every one of us must be always with Him “Here” and “Now”. God foreknew us even before we were born, and He sure knows what is good for His children.

But, for us human, it might take a certain time (or even a lifetime) before we could connect all the events that had happened earlier to reflect on its meaning to our lives. God uses people whom we meet through events in our lives to carry out His good plan. Like an artist using colors, brushes, palettes, etc…to magnify his fantasy, and not until the artist dropped off his brushes and cleaned up his pallets could we be amazed at his whole masterpiece. Because while I was still busy convincing myself that, it was just the time I need to hold on to my faith, be patient and well prepared to meet with “the right person” at “the right time” in “the right place”, I was not aware of that, at that certain (“now”) moment sitting with Ank in (“here”) St. Mark’s Square, it already began the preparation progress for me to meet with the other important part of my life; at least not until the end of November that year when I would help my friend flying another business group from Hanoi to Amsterdam again. And, for the first time, I would visit the Dutch couple at their home in Amstelveen where I was also going to first meet  their son - IWAN , whom I soon recognized “the right person” I had been long waiting for. It was amazingly beyond capability of my imagination!

Again, for us human being, it is just the matter of time. When the time comes, events will take its place. All we have to do, I believe, is to corporate with God in harmony so that His will shall be presented. In other words, just entrust completely in God yet not stop holding on to our dreams. It is indeed essential that within you must also exist the drive to quest what your heart always longs for. Because it also depends on your choice of acts and its consequences. Sometimes we may find ourselves hesitated in front of decisions. The tip is just follow your gut feeling as most of the time it is inspired and guided by The Holy Spirit.

I would ask,

• What if I had chosen to fly back to Hanoi earlier? If I would still meet the Dutch couple in Venice, whom later turned out to be my Parents-in-Law?
• And what if “the wife” herself hadn’t approached to me to suggest us a walk together?

I remember a day before the conversation with Ank in St. Mark’s Square, I was kneeing in front of Mother Mary statue in a church somewhere on my way exploring Venice. With a sobbing heart and tears in my eyes, I was praying:

“Dear Mother, I am so grateful that God has blessed me when my dream to travel to Europe has come true. Yet why inner to my soul I am feeling so empty and incomplete? I know I have prayed so long to meet the man of my life, with whom I can share anything with. Though for now I don’t know about that person yet, I know I have already entrusted him in your hands and let me trust that you have been looking after him and keep him safe for me. Meanwhile please comfort my heart and make me strong and patient until the day that you know it is the right time for us to meet”.

I was always wondering about the day and the way of how my true love will appear to me. How my own romance would happen? Now when I am reflecting on all the events that have happened, Mother Mary must have been smiling at me at that moment like: “You silly child! Don’t you know I have already sent your promised parents-in-law who are now staying at the same hotel with you?”.

I would wonder,

• In billions of people from 195 nations on this globe, what are the possibilities for a girl like me who came all the way from Vietnam to encounter an old couple who travelled out of Holland to meet at that point of time on that boat dock?
• In thousands of hotels in Venice, how many percentage of chances could the same choice for “Antico Panada” Hotel to be chosen by those people standing on that boat dock at that point of time who had never met in life?

No longer do I think about it as a “Coincidence”, but a “Miracle”! Normally people would have a tendency to consider what they have or have experienced is always better or even the best in comparison with the others. Yet perhaps it is not too much to humbly and gratefully “declare” that:

How I first met "the man of my life" is one-of-a-kind Fairy Tale !

                                                       - T h e E n d -

o The Story is written with gratitude to:

• LIEU, whom I met on Christmas 2014 through “the event” of a Charity trip which I helped organize with another group of friends, to visit disabled children and the elders in a suburban of Hanoi and since then we became friends. “The special friend” whom God has sent to help me in achieving my dream trip to Europe in March 2015, which was meant to kick off a chain of further events….

• ANK (mammaatje) & TON (papa Zombie), who have successfully acted the “intermediate role” as the  friendly “Dutch couple” (out of their awareness) through “the event” of Venice trip which opened the next path leading me to first meet with my true love.

• IWAN, who has successfully acted his “first role” as a volunteering tour-guide in “the event” of accompanying his parents’ visitor – a lit’ girl from Vietnam; and not long later continued his “main exciting role” as “the right man” in her own Fairy Tale…

o Note:
*Alpha (Α or α) and Omega (Ω or ω) are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet

A story of Iwan...

I became a tour guide of my parents' visistor...

My parents came back from their holiday with a story about a very kind girl they met in Venice. Jolly is her name, she was traveling all alone from Vietnam and coincidently staying in the same hotel with them. Ank – my mother – told me that Jolly might visit us one day if she would travel to Holland again. All impression I had in my mind about Jolly by that time was just less or more of it could be dangerous for a girl to travel alone. Not until that day when I saw her walking in the door of my house did I recognize there were a lot more from this special girl that I could be impressed.

Couple of days prior to her arrival, Ank asked me if I could show Jolly around during her stay with us, as she had asked my sister Karin to help but impossible because Karin had to work those days. I was living still with my parents by that time and my work schedule was mostly in the evening so I got no reason to deny. My parents picked Jolly up from a hotel close by Schiphol with our small old blue Ford while I was waiting at home.

On an early morning of 30 November, 2015…

Jolly entered the door with her BIG suitcase. I cannot forget that shiny smile when she gave me greetings with a handshake. Apart from that I was impressed of how a small girl could travel alone with such a BIG suitcase, I felt at the same time something very special inside me when seeing her in person for the first time. I would help to carry her suitcase upstairs but she wanted to open it first to get all nice gifts out for us. After that my parents had to go to the doctor for a while for Ton’s periodical check-up. Normally I am a type of “shy” person when it comes to talking with stranger and…especially girls! Out of my attention, I found it went very naturally and comfortably talking with Jolly for the first time we met. We were sitting behind my computer and I asked her out of my curiosity how she could manage traveling alone, which part of Vietnam she came from…etc. Then I showed her a bit on the map of Holland and planning the highlight tourist attractions to show her and my mom around for following days. It was raining hard on her first day of arrival, and she was also a bit tired and lacked of sleep from the long flight of the night before.

So as planned, I took Jolly and Ank to Zaanse Schans and then to Madurodam (yeah, very typical tourist spots that no tourist would miss) on her second day at our house and luckily the weather was better. I saw Jolly walking often hand in hand with my mom and she kept smiling all the time. I didn’t know why but that image made me felt something gently close and comfortable.

The blue old Ford broke down…

On the third day we went to Amsterdam to take the boat tour along the canal. While we were waiting for the traffic light, I noticed something probably went wrong with the cooling system because there was so much smoke suddenly came out from the car engine. I drove quickly to find a parking spot before the engine would turn too hot and break down completely. Luckily, I found a nice spot in front of a bicycle rental shop. I thought to myself that I would not let this spoil out our day, so I decided to check over the car later so that we could still enjoy our nice time in Amsterdam. I then called a friend of mine to help calling a tow truck man he knew to get my car home. Then I walked in the bicycle shop to ask the staff there if they could give my car key to the tow truck man when he would come to pick up the car. Luckily they agreed and i gave them 10 euro for their help. Voilà! Well done and all arranged!

Since we lost our direction in the middle of the road, we walked to a coffee shop on our way to have a drink and to get “recovered” after the car trouble shock. When we called drinks, I noticed Jolly ordered only tea and just as me I always drink tea instead of coffee. With help from the staff here we could redirect our way to the center where we would go on a typical boat tour around Amsterdam canals. The time went by so fast especially when you were enjoying. Yet we had some fun in the center and it was time to head back home as I had to go to work in the late afternoon. When I came back from work in the late evening, everybody was still awake. Jolly spent sometimes sitting behind the computer with me and started showing me the Vietnam map on Google. She told me about many nice destinations and beautiful beaches along the country coast. I thought to myself I would travel there one day! We were talking a lot about things and didn’t know that it was getting quite late until my mom said goodnight as she was walking upstairs to her bed while my dad was still watching TV. It was the last night Jolly stayed with us and she would fly very early in the morning after to Budapest to visit her Hungarian friend. I offered to drive her directly to Eindhoven Airport though she only wanted me to drive her to the Central Station where she would get on a train to the airport as she didn’t want to bother me for a long drive and for such early time. But how could I leave such a kind girl struggle with her way to the airport?!

Because our car was broken, I had to borrow the car from my work and it had only 2 seats. My mom had to excused with Jolly that she couldn’t accompany her to Eindhoven. Eventually, I thought to myself there was some very moment with only us (without my parents) for the last minute. So during the drive, I found a good moment to release my ever curiosity about her personal status. With all my courage, I asked her:

-  So…are you still alone or you already have a boyfriend in Vietnam?
-  Well, I had boyfriends before but people come and go…I haven’t found the right one yet. How about you? – She replied.
-  Me too, I haven’t found the right one…
- The best normally comes at last. I believe that we will find our right partner, we just need to be patient. We are good people and we deserve good things.

Her words comforted me. We kept talking a lot until I recognized we already arrived at the airport despite it was quite a long drive. We went inside and I helped Jolly to check in. Then we sit for a little while at the café bar close to the entrance to the right and had a cup of tea together. I couldn’t keep my eyes from looking into hers. I felt so good every second with Jolly and could not find any negative points about her. She is so kind and always smiling and yes…so beautiful! My heart wanted to remain longer with her, but my silly mind was thinking about the heavy traffic I might encounter if I wouldn’t leave now. Then we had to say goodbye. We gave 3 kisses on each other cheeks as normal Dutch greetings, but I didn’t know by how my lips happened to touch on hers in a flashing second. I was at that moment in a sort of dream trance that I did not know exactly what I was doing. Walking towards the car parking area, I kept looking backwards if I could still see Jolly but her image went out of my sight. I can’t remember how I drove home since I kept thinking nonstop about her. I was feeling so many butterflies in my stomach after that kiss - our FIRST KISS….ever!

I would not feel mad about the broke down of our car anymore as its consequence turned out a great chance! People normally say “in bad luck you find another luck”. How could it be a coincidence if it happened at just the proper time?! Well, I think it was all meant to be!

(to be continued...)

A story of Iwan...

(continued...)

I decided to go to Vietnam…

Shortly after that I went to Spain with my parents for a short holiday over Christmas in our house there. I could not stop thinking about Jolly. We stayed in contact over WhatsApp and learning more about each other since she went back to Vietnam. In Spain, the internet connection was very bad as the house is located kind of in the middle of the wood. Life seems to provoke you sometimes that way when you are in need of something the most and then it goes wrong. My phone - the only thing I could keep in touch with the girl I was on crush with - was broken. I sent Jolly an email from my email address but I was worried she might not receive it. I then sneakily used my mom’s email address to send her another email and finally I got her email back. I was so happy that she knew what happened to my phone eventually.

I wanted to tell my mom about us but Jolly hesitated as she wanted to wait until our relationship would become mature enough. But I couldn’t hold it for too long. One afternoon when Ank was chilling under the sun and drinking her wine on the terrace, I wouldn’t miss the nice moment to tell my mom that I liked Jolly very much and that we had many things in common. I told her that I wanted to go to Vietnam to meet Jolly and she said: “Jolly is a good girl, don’t break her heart…”.

I had never had such good feeling with any women before like I felt with Jolly and...I trusted it! So about one month after back to Holland from Spain, I booked a flight to Hanoi, packed my suitcase and follow the call of my heart.

It was in early of February 2016 and also Lunar New Year in Vietnam. For the first time ever I would meet Jolly's family and taste all the delicious home-food cooked by her kind mom as well as variety of Asian street foods! I recognized I was such a lucky man! 

                                               

                                            The rest is  - H I S T O R Y -

Of Her 
• First Met His Parents: 5 Mar 2015 @ Venice, Italy 

Of Him
• First Met Her Family: Feb 2016 (Tet Holiday) @ Saigon, Vietnam 

Of Us
• First Met: 31 Nov 2015 @ De Zon, Amstelveen, Holland (His parent’s house)

• First “Butterfly-In-Stomach” Kiss: 3 Dec 2015 @ Eindhoven Airport, Holland

• First Flight: Feb 2016 from Hanoi to Saigon

• First Travel Excursion: 13.02.16 @ Halong Bay, Vietnam (one of the World’s Natural Heritage) 

• First Valentine Dinner: 14.02.16 @ Landmark Lotte, Hanoi

• First Vacation: August 2016 @ Spain

• His Proposal: 3 June 2017 @ National Park Zuid, Bloemendaal, Holland

• Signing "Permanent Contract” as Husband & Wife Under Law: 6 July 2018 @ Gemeente Amstelveen, Holland 

• Marriage Sacrament & Wedding Vows: 13 October 2020 @ Sint Urbanuskerk, Ouderkerk aan de Amstel

until Her...

Jolly was working for an international hotel operator company. She was the representative of this company in Vietnam and managed her company’s representative office in Hanoi by herself. She was assisting her big bosses who sit in the other regional offices outside of Vietnam with hotel project works and travelled quite often to beautiful resorts and hotels for business meetings. I was very proud and amazed of how such a small beautiful and kind girl could do this all alone!

When I came to Vietnam the first time, I was very tired because of the jet lag. My tummy was not at ease and I couldn’t eat much for the first two days. That evening Jolly used some kind of oriental herbal oil and gave a firm but gentle massage on my back and belly. I was feeling so good not only because the massage really helped me feel much better, but it was also the first massage in my life that I had ever got from a woman. I was totally touched by her care for me at that moment.

If I have to think about one word that describes Jolly, I would choose “SWEET”. Her sweetness comes from any aspects about her. From her smile, her voice, her cute little fingers and tiny toes, her love for plants, her idea for our house décor, her intelligence, her sensitive heart and compassion inside towards the world outside, even her childish “demanding” sometimes, and of course…to her way she cares about me.

I am so grateful when she decided to give up her great job and left everything - her family, her friends, her culture…behind to go to the Netherlands and begin a new life with me in early of 2017. I told her I would never let her down for making this great decision as I know I love her with all my heart.

Jolly has brought the sunshine into my life again and I had missed this for such a long time. We have so much in common. We like drinking warm tea. I love the “meditative” flavor of all natural herbal elements she infuses together in our homemade tea. We would steal kisses from our faces when passing each other at times in the house. We like cycling in the nature and watching cows, teasing sheeps, calling ducks and enjoy observing all kind of animal we see on the field or in the river. If we have to choose a color or some item out of a list, most of the time we would pick up at the same thing. We often spot out something abnormal or funny from people or on the street at the same time and sneakily giggle or naughtily laugh about it together.

She likes making pictures and asking us for selfies when seeing nice things. When we were on vacation in Austria, she made me walk like a model back and forth on the street of Salzburg regardless of people were looking at us, so that she could make photos of me. And of course, after that it would be my turn for her :D. It took me sometimes in the beginning to get used to this but soon I recognized that she got eyes for capturing things into her frame. By the end of the day all the nice memory photos we have normally thanks to her idea. My patience and photography skill have been somehow developed along with her “demanding” by the way. So not too bad I think :) !

Not a few times did I see her standing soooo long in the kitchen looking at our little tiny tropical in-house garden that she has grown, or she can be busy with plants whole day. She is so dedicated and passionate about plants that she can spot out how much bigger a leave has grown every moment or a new flower bulb is on the way to appear. She is also very neat and clean that not often a single dirt on the floor would be able to sneak out of her eye. I could say every single corner in our house is taken care by her. Thanks to her our house getting more and more cozy with good vibes. I always feel so good to go home every day after work because I feel like I can’t wait to see that smiling face again even it was just a day not seeing each other. Maybe it sounds strange but that is real true.

Jolly is everything for me that I could wish for. I had to wait a bit long before but eventually I found myself the happiest man ever.

I never felt better in my whole life until Her...

I am so grateful!

Being in his love...

When I was looking at the mirror and many times doubted about my body shape, he would hug me from behind and say: "You always look beautiful inside out, baby. Remember this, don't ever be ashamed of yourself".

When I sometimes felt asleep in our car when he was driving and found myself awake embarrassedly with an open mouth drop, while the others might have laughed at me to see, I would see him with one hand on the wheel and the other hand still holding on to support my head, gently with his smile and backed me up: "Oh you looked so cute when you felt asleep".

I used to struggle in the kitchen with all kind of mess for only a noodle bowl and even not really knew what I was cooking (I was still an inexperienced girl for cooking by that time), I felt no appetite to look at my own dish. He would tease me with a text from work: "OMG, you need me, baby".

That morning when we were waking up beside each other as usual, I told him I wanted to do something special for him on that day. He insisted: "You are already a present for me, there is nothing more special than you in the whole universe”. Then in the evening when he came back from work, he cooked a nice warm meal for us, with a little help I could do to prepare ingredients in advance, and a cozy table setting for dinner with flowers and candles. He would also hug me to say thanks, for that he thought it should have been done all by himself to make romantic dinners for us more often but due to work schedule we had to struggle a bit still. And, that was on his Birthday!

I still remember how I hesitated walking into the relationship with Iwan in the beginning. Especially when I saw him so excited with his plan to visit me in Hanoi for the first time while I was still not so sure about my feeling. Because I have been through ups and downs in previous relationships, I would not want my heart to suffer again neither create pain to anyone else. And in this case, I would not want to destroy the friendship between his parents and me too. Iwan noticed that and I thought he would be disappointed. Nevertheless, instead of making me feel guilty, he released the pressure in me: “Don’t be worried, if it would not work out, we can still be friends. But, I will let you love me”. I was confused with that “I will let you love me”. It could mean actively like “I will make you love me” or even powerfully like “I allow you to love me” and perhaps tinted with a hidden meaning “I would love you to love me”. I didn’t know what he meant exactly?! Not until I stepped further with him into our love adventure did I learn that there are so many good qualities about this man.

Iwan is a kind of simple-life-styled man but full of positive energy always. He is not so clever at romantic tricks that every woman might expect from a man in early time of dating. In contrast, it was the sincerity in his eyes, the warmness of his voice, the gentleness from the way he cares, the determination of his acts, the positiveness in the way he thinks, and sometimes even the clumsiness from his approaching effort...that have won my heart.

Being in his love, I have learned how a true love really means. It can empower and encourage one person to love the other one without condition, to accept all shortcomings of your partner and to go out of your own way and love someone the whole person they are.

"I love you" and "I'm proud of you" are the very often words he says to me.

Being in his love, I feel my dignity is totally respected and my heart is fulfilled.

Iwan was right. Naturally and gently did he LET me love him.