Jessica & Jeffery’s story

Wedding Date: September 19, 2009

Before I even begin the love story, I would like to tell you a little bit about my background which you would later find out why Jeff is so precious in my life.

I was born and raised in Indonesia until the age of fifteen when I decided to leave my family behind in order to pursue my education.  I moved to Australia first but a year later Mom wanted me to move to Oklahoma (why Oklahoma? It’s a whole different story which I’ll be glad to tell you on another chance).  I refused at first because I did not even know where Oklahoma was and I did not want to be on the other side of the world all by myself.  After so many considerations, I accepted and ended up in Stillwater, a small town in OK and enrolled as a high school junior.  When I was graduating from high school, I knew that I wanted to go to Oklahoma State University instead of moving to a bigger state.  I guess the small city and its nice people had grown on me.

Jeff and I met in the beginning of 2005 fall semester.  I got a job as a Resident Assistant (RA) in one of the traditional halls on campus and Jeff was a new transferred student who just moved in that semester.  The first time I saw Jeff was at a get together and as soon as he walked into the room, I noticed how cute he was.  We talked for a little bit and unfortunately I had to leave with some of my girls.  I must admit that I indeed had a huge crush on Jeff since the very first time I met him.  Throughout the semester, I would see him on the way to class or just around in the hallways, sadly I was too shy to say hi first and he never did say hi to me either, so from then on, it was just an awkward moment every time we saw each other.  Long story short, I started seeing him around less and less and eventually forgot about him.  I did not even know he moved out off-campus.

In the fall 2006 semester, I started hanging out with a new group of friends.  It was exactly one year later from the very day I met Jeff, I saw him again at a local bar in town.  To my surprise, the new people I had been hanging out with were actually Jeff’s childhood friends.  Jeff and I spent the whole night talking and catching up and in the back of my head I knew that this was it, I think we both knew that we were not going to let this chance to pass us by for the second time.  We were so lucky that a friend of ours had captured that very special night on camera. We began dating just a few weeks after that night and as people say, the rest is history.

Later on, I learned that Jeff had liked me since the first time we met, well even before that.  He describes it as “love before the first sight”. (Sounds crazy, I know!)  According to Jeff, the whole reason why he was at the get together in the first place was because he had seen my picture posted by the front desk in the hall we lived (They posted pictures of all of the RAs so the residents would know who their RAs were) and he told himself that he gotta meet me in person.  Unfortunately, after that first time we met, he admitted he never had the guts to talk to me whenever he saw me around, so he did what I did, nothing.

When Jeff graduated in May 2008, we took a trip to Indonesia to visit my family and meet them for the very first time.  I was not nervous at all because I knew they were going to love Jeff just as much.  My only concern was the fact that my Mom and grandma did not speak English.  I supplied Jeff with a dictionary hoping he could learn one or two sentences on the plane.  Besides visiting my hometown, Jakarta, we also visited Bali!  Here are some pics of the trip (click here, here, here, and here!); Bali was absolutely our most favorite place in Indonesia!  Jeff left Indonesia early to start his new job in Kansas and I stayed behind to spend more time with the family.  After Jeff left, Mom told me that he had asked for hand in marriage .  I was surprised, happy and started thinking of how Jeff could have asked her (due to the language barrier).  Mom told me he went up to her with a dictionary in his hands and just started flipping hrough the pages and read the Indonesian words to her, which basically translated to if he could marry me.  Later on, my little brother found the dictionary (Jeff had forgotten to take it home with him!) and there there were the pages with their corners folded and had marks.  That was the sweetest thing and it still brings a smile on my face everytime I think of it.  Mom said yes of course!

I came back to the U.S. and stayed in Stillwater to finish off my master degree while Jeff was working in Kansas.  Early September, Jeff broke the news that he was officially going to be deployed in September for four months (Jeff is in the Air Force).  Honestly, I was not too thrilled to hear the news because I know what it feels like being so far away from the people I love and it’s never easy.  But I supported him 100%.  Prior to his deployment, Jeff took me out on a date to celebrate our 2nd anniversary early.  He took me a restaurant where we went on our very first date.  Jeff proposed that night and it could not have been more perfect.  And of course I said yes!  I was as ecstatic as any girls could be, but I was even more grateful because I could start planning a wedding to keep me busy while Jeff was overseas.

Deciding when and where to have the wedding was the hardest task to do.  I, of course wanted my family to be a part of the wedding planning but it was just quite impossible to plan a wedding in Indonesia, while I am on the other side of the world, plus I have built many friendships over the nine years period I have been here.  So I finally decided to have the wedding in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Jeff’s family lives.  After Jeff left to Kuwait, I felt I had lost half my heart, one because there I was again all alone, two because I had no clue about planning a wedding. I was still bummed with the fact that I would not be able to share this experience with my mom, my grandma or my sister (they will not be able to come to the U.S. probably until two weeks prior to my wedding due to a lot of reasons). However, I am extremely lucky and blessed to have Jeff’s family in my life and I love them as much as I love Jeff.  They have been there every step of the wedding planning and not only that; there are also great moral supports.  I feel like I have found a home away from home.

The wedding planning is going great, we have chosen a beautiful ranch accompanied with a Normandy style log barn built in 1926.  It was the first and only place we saw and we just fell in love with it.  It is very easy to go overboard with a wedding, but we always keep it in mind that the most important thing is to have our beloved family and friends sharing that special day with us.  We are also going to include some of Indonesian traditions and foods in the wedding to share with others about my heritage.  As far as my own family who are still in Indonesia, I always do my best to share such an important experience in a girl’s life by sending them pictures of the venue, my dress and take as many suggestions as they want to give me!

I believe that fate has brought Jeff and I together, if I had not accept Mom’s offer to move to OK and would have stayed in Australia instead, I would not have met Jeff and I would not have been getting married to the most wonderful man!  Jeff is warm, loving, and patient and has just about everything a girl could ever ask for in a man.  He shows me everyday that love breaks all barriers and most importantly, he has given me what I missed the most, home.  While my whole family still remains Indonesia, I truly feel that I have found myself a home.  No matter where I am, what I do, as long as we are together, I know I’m home.

p.s. Jeff came home from Kuwait literally two days before I submitted this entry!   His family, nephews and I were welcoming him home at the airport.  We were in the middle of an ice storm and were worried that Jeff’s flight would not make it that day but they indeed arrived on time! It was a feeling I could not describe to see be able to see his face and touch him again!  Jeff is home and I got half my heart back!