Garazon’s Den

Alison Michelle 21 years old

This picture was among some of the things in the parcel I got today, I always liked this picture of Alison. I look at the key she’s holding and always think how now she holds the key to my heart :)

Parcel from Cyprus

Another parcel arrived today from Cyprus. :) I get so excited when these come in. Its mostly her clothing she has been shipping ahead. There’s no cheap way to get her things here and though the post may not seem at first thought to be the cheapest way to send it,  it actually is the least expensive of any of the methods I have looked into.  This should be the last of them now I think. Alison has been shipping a box or two like this about once a week now for the last four or five weeks. It’s always the most wonderful feeling comes over me when I get one of these. Just having her things in the house now are making it feel more like she’s already here. With each one that comes in I get more excited and the reality of our day finally coming close is setting in on me big time! We’ve waited nearly three years now for this, and I swear this last month seems to be dragging on so very slowly. The day just cant come soon enough for us now. Actually in just 4 days now she will be leaving Cyprus and heading to the Uk for about a two week stopover to visit her family befroe she’s heading on to become Mrs. Garazon! :) Whooo hooo! its almost here! love you Mrs. G XXXX

The day Alison and I have dreamed and planned for so long is now nearly here, and today marks one of the happiest days of my life. Alison booked her flight today to come to the US permanently! (Pause here for celebration and cheering! YEA!! ) Its really hard to believe its finally come. Though we never have doubted for a minute it would happen, this distance separating us has caused more than it’s fair share of aches. But soon they will all be forgotten in a single kiss when we are at last together forever.

As I have often done for many other events, a countdown script for this very special event has been added to the site, you may already have seen it there in the top of the sidebar. Well actually its in three parts which should be self explanatory, but seeing as I often don’t make things clear I should probably elaborate. The first one is a countdown until the day she leaves to go to the UK to visit family and friends for a couple of weeks before beginning her new life as an Americano! :) She leaves Cyprus on the 22nd of November. The next countdown is to the time her plane leaves London to come to the US, and of course it wouldn’t be complete without the last one; the most important one of them all to me, the time her plane lands at Norfolk where I will be waiting like I have won the lottery! :) She lands in Norfolk on December 9th at 9:28 pm. I wont be late, even if the plane is! ;) I still have some counters up on various other pages and sites of mine from past events that were very special to us, our trips to see each other and I also set a countup scriot on another site that counts the days since she and I met, as I write this now it was 939 days ago that this beautiful Brit sent me a smile and a short note asking “Would you like to write sometimes?” since we both were widows and at a point very similar in our lives. Well that’s a story already told so I will let that be and just say from almost that very day, we both knew things were going to be very different for us! ;)  Well anyway here we are 939 days later waiting only for another 39 more to pass. I can’t begin to tell you how long these days are going to seem now. I cant even begin to describe how happy I am either, Its beyond words, it truly is. I feel the hand of God in all our story and a love destined from the beginning of time.

I’ll just continue to update this post with any related news instead of making new ones. and I have to apolgize for not doing much to update the sites lately too, along with us being busy getting things sorted for our reunion, there has been a lot going on with my mom as well. Another long story that, and maybe I will get around soon to expounding on all that happened, but for now she is scheduled the middle part of November to have a rather in depth surgery to reconnect her stomach to whats left of her esophagus up in her throat. No none of this was brought on by sickness but by a simple procedure done at a local hospital in August that ended up tearing her esophagus and having to be transported out to a larger hospital. She’s coming along and doing ok, well the best she can under the citrcumstances if you consider being on a feeding tube 14 hours a day, every day since the 23rd of August! Well as I say thats another story…

For now heres the itinerary as it stands now

Outbound:  Tue 09 December 08

Duration: 12:28

Departing:  Terminal 3 London Heathrow Apt (LHR), London, United Kingdom
14:00 Tue
Arriving: Terminal 4, New York J F Kennedy International Apt (JFK), New York, United States
17:05 Tue

Continental Airlines (CO 8245)
Aircraft type - 346

Connection:

17:05, Tue - 19:45, Tue -
Change plane

Stop-over duration: 2h40
Departing:  Terminal 3 New York J F Kennedy International Apt (JFK), New York, United States
19:45 Tue
Arriving: Norfolk International Apt (ORF), Norfolk, United States
21:28 Tue

DELTA (DL 6231)
Aircraft type - ER4

Stay tuned for more updates and thanks for dropping by!

Just in celebration of the wonderful news of our visa being approved! Never was there a happier man than me to know that One particular Brit will soon be here! Xxxx I love you Mrs G!

I love the Brits, One in particular!

I do!

October 17, 2008, its finally official; Alison had her interview today at the American Embassy in Nicosia and all our hard work and long waiting has now paid off! Just under 5 months from submitting the petition to having this part of our dream come true! She will have to go back next week to pick it up, but she is now fully approved and she is free to come to the US! legally! lol Well come to stay legally I mean! ;) She still has some business to take care of, renting her house out for one and finding a good home for Mr. Magnificient for another! But all this waiting and worrying now about getting all these forms and certficates and evidence is now all done, well still there is her interview at customs and immigration when she enters the US, but having the visa approved was the huge step to our permananet reunion. This was such an exciting moment for us, well from getting the interview date at the embassy last week its been building until last night I was feeling just like I did the times she was leaving to come here on holiday and the day I left to go there. I could hardly sleep last night waking several times and then texting her a couple of times until whe was nearly to the interview.   From the last text I was wide awake for what seemed to be the longest time, just anticipating our future together and knowing these long aching days of being separated are soon to be a distant memory, well one that wont be forgotten either and we will make sure we make the most of every minute together, we have a LOT of catching up to do! :-)

will add some more later to this post, its early morning and I just got the call from her getting out of the interview. i really knew it would be approved, but until you hear it officially its just not the same. Well I am off to having some coffee to wake me up a bit (like I need the extra caffeine to get my heart racing faster!) and shes having lunch with her good friend Agneta now in Nicosia. It was ever so kind and thoughtful of her to take Alison today, shes been a good friend for so many years to her and I am so thankful she has such good friends around her too. And it is always thanks to God and our angels for making our dreams come true, heaven sent this love has always been, will always be. I’ll speak more later! Whooooo hooo! lol

It’s Official! Our petition for the fiancée visa was approved today!!!! YEA!!!!!! You cant imagine two more ecited or happier people than the two of us when we got the news :) Our lives are all filled with highs and lows and we mark our journey through life by them. I can in all honesty say I have never been overcome by such joyful emotion as I was when I first got the news. And the timing really was coming at a point that some good news was needed. We both have struggeled trying to keep from getting down about it taking so long and so many hoops to jump through to just simply be together and share a love sent from heaven, as well as the worry with my mom being in the hospital ICU in serious but stable condition. 

Well I should start with getting the news. Both of us had signed up at the USCIS website to receive email updates about our case when any action was taken. Well there are only two instances of action in this particular petion, one is the receipt of it and the case pending, and the last one is the approval notice, we get NOTHING in between which only served to make us that more anxious waiting for word. Yesterday (I’m editing this a day after I made the post) was a busy day for both of us, with me working and then planning to go to the hospital after, and Alison at the time entertaining a friend for dinner at her house. With all the things going on with mom I have been keeping up with the family and friends by email a lot and have been in a habit of checking it on my phone a lot here lately. Well something told me to check it yesterday, one of those feeligs we get, and to be truthful I just thought it was someone wanting to know about mom or something like that. Well I knew alison was busy , but she still sends some kisses right often too :)

Anyway being in the state I was I was sort of in one of those worried states and when i saw the name “CRIS” whch i recognized from signing up at the USCIS site, my heart just seemed to stop and turn 

iPhone inbox

180 degrees around! I never have felt so much jubilation as when I saw that notice! I stopped right then and sent Alison a text (I started to cal her but her cell has been going south for a while now and the battery goes very fast on voice calls unless she is plugged into the charger. Here’s the text I did send, excuse the French ;)

 Those few minutes of texting and then her trying to call and speak were like something I hvae never experienced before, both of us jumping up and down likely and telling everyyone who would listen! well everyone knows how badly we wanted this day to come,andnow its here and soon when she is called to go to the embassy there, she will have her visa to come! :) We will have our Christmas together this year! :-) 

You know its seemed like an eternity waiting for this thing to be approved, and looking back now its was just 3 months, well i say just… to us it seeemd so much longer. From what i have seen though the average waitign time now is close to 10 to 13 months and I was so down we wpuld end up seeing another year go by, but somehow God and our angels pulled off another one and made us even happier than we have been :)  But its nothing will compare to that day she gets off the plane here and I hold her in my arms and knowing its for good! Love you baby! XXX

Original post here by Alison on her blog

As long as we live, they too will live;
for they are now a part of us, as we remember them.
To live in the hearts we leave behind, is not to die.

The tide recedes, but leaves behind bright seashells on the sand.
The sun goes down, but gentle warmth still lingers in the land,
The music stops, and yet it echoes on in sweet refrains…
For every joy that passes, something beautiful remains.

The month of August will always be a month that in some ways remain more significant than others for both Chester and myself , its been 4 years now since both of us lost our spouses , the loves we had shared our lives with for so many happy years ,
never dreaming at that time in 2004 we would have another happy day without them , how wrong could we have been , well it certainly wasn’t easy , and for sure we spent many miserable dark gloomy days and nights grieving ,
Throughout that time I really did pray a lot to God , he is always there listening
Nicos and Gretchen , I believe with all of my heart that they were there in heaven together , planning a way to bring the two lost and lonely people they had left behind in the world together to share one very deep and devoted love , And they did , they made sure even though we were a huge Ocean apart that we found each other and found a love that could only be described as heaven sent

Today I didn’t want to stand at a graveside and be sad, I wanted to close my eyes and whisper a prayer of thanks for the love we had and the love we have received now , as the little passage above says in the last line
‘ For every joy that passes ,something beautiful remains ‘ and that beautiful something is the wonderful love Chester and I share today and forever more .

Also the beautiful collection of images on the video I found on You Tube just made me realize that no matter how difficult things can be around us in life , we are strong inside when we have Gods Love , the snow didn’t stop those flowers blooming and neither did the grief stop a new love forming for us , we are truly blessed.

Nicos and Gretchen - , As long as we live, they too will live for they are now a part of us as we remember them.

God has made for me

Already posted this before but i love this song and my Cyprus Angel :)
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I can see us in this :)

The only car shows I get to attend this time of year are right here in the parking lot of the place I work! I have seen quite a few that worthy of being in a car show, especially this one, the paint job was immaculate. Wish  got a closer look.

Not sure what the make or model of this car was but it sure caught my eye, wish I had the regular camera with me to get a better picture. Glad I have the iPhone now as it does a fair job anyway.

Wonder why it made me think of Alison instantly? ;)  I can see her behind the wheel of this. :)  I’m absolutley clueless to what kind of car this is and I was in too much a hurry to get away from the store to stop and look closer, wish I had now. if anyone knows or recognises the make and model give me a shout!

Somewhere on this website, or one of my others is the story of how I came about the screen name of Garazon. I’ll look for the link to it… Oh. it’s on my old site…  How I came by the name Garazon is a rather often asked question. It’s kind of strange and spooky really. When I first got online through AOL I had the option of creating various other screen names to use for individual family members. I was trying to come up with something unique, (which turns out to be a very hard thing to accomplish). I went through everything I could think of, entering a new screen name only to have this blasted dialog box pop up saying “that name is unavailable or already in use” or some such nonsense.. (continue reading…)