Our Love Story

So, I just recently scanned a couple of pictures of when Ben and I were dating and when we got married in Bolivia.
A friend of mine, Karen asked about my love story.
I have shared it so many times that sometimes, i forget how special it is and i just assumed people don't want to listen anymore.
So LONG story, short...
we met, we dated, i left, he went to Bolivia, got married and came back to the USA.

If you like details go ahead and bring some snacks or a cup of coffee because this is quite a long love story.

So in the year of 2003, i decided(as well as my mom) that we needed to do what my Dad wanted me to do, and that was study English and go to United States for one school year to practice my English, go back home, get a job, and go to college.
I went to a private center and study English for about 8 months before coming here and submerging myself in a crazy adventure.
After a couple of months of finally adjusting to cultural shock, I was invited by a classmate (and guy i liked) to go to a Youth Group meeting every Wednesday night.
I honestly wasn't interested in going to church much, but I was interested in the boy, so I went along and finally realized that the guy wasn't interested in my in that way and if he was, then he was testing me.
I don't like to be tested so I decided to go to church on my own since I have already made a ton of friends.


One day, i was introduced to a white boy with longish curly hair.
He seemed a nice person but nothing else.
He decided to not go to youth group for a couple of weeks (about 3 or 4) so when i saw him again, i decided to chat with him and ask him why he wasn't coming every Wednesday. And no, i wasn't interested in him at all.
He responded me by saying "ohh, i don't like coming here that often. People in this youth group are so shallow and full of themselves and FAKE. You might even be FAKE like them."
i guess, me asking about him not coming was a fake interest, and i didn't really care, I just was obliged to ask because i am a "good christian girl".
It hurt my feelings when he responded that way to i just walked away and told a friend what he just told me.
I avoided him the whole time but it wasn't like he was trying to start a conversation with me anyways.
My friend shared my situation with our pastor and next Wednesday the curly guy was there agaib. i only said "Hello!" and kept walking.
After that last conversation i wasn't interested in having any type of relationship with him anyway.



Our pastor preached about how we hurt people, and we need to say we are sorry and have grace for one another. i didn't think much about the service but Ben took the message more deeply than i did and came to me (in the middle of the service) and asked me to forgive him for being rude.
I accepted his apology but there was a wall build up between him and i by now.
Service was done and i needed to either walk home quick or get a ride.
I decided to walk but Ben wanted to talk to me and instead of actually remembering my name he used a derogatory name to catch my attention.
He yells "Beaner!" (if you don't know what a beaner is, you can compare it to the "N" word for an African American person but this is used for Mexicans.)
i personally, didn't even know what the word meant. i have never heard it before so i asked someone to tell me what it meant. The person just told me that it wasn't a nice word and as Ben gets closer to me, i tell him to "back off" and i keep walking towards my home because it was getting darker.
He follows me and i tell him to go but he doesn't want to listen, he keeps apologizing and i turn around and tell him that he doesn't know what it is to not be either white or black, that they both fit in a group and that i didn't feel like a belong because i was right in between and there was no other person with my skin color in the whole school.
he tried to apologize but i was so offended that i couldn't listen.
He talked for a long, long time until we finally gave up with the whole thing. He offered me a ride and as we walked back to his van he shares all the things he was struggling with. Drugs and Alcohol that is.
We get into his van and i guide him where to go to get to my place, but with my hand on the handle to open to the door and jump to the side of the road just in case he was a serial killer or something like it. Back at home, you hear lots of stories like that about USA criminals so i was very afraid that maybe, just maybe he was a serial killer. :)
we get to my house and i give him my phone number.
A whole week goes by and he never calls but the weirdest part was that i was worried about him all week. All i could think about was him.
The thoughts in my heads were, that maybe he was drinking or smoking marijuana and i wasn't there to help him choose better.
He finally calls on Saturday but "Aunt Flow" came for a visit earlier that day so i wasn't feeling "well" at all. i declined the invite but we set up a "date" for Sunday afternoon.
We went bike riding downtown and i guess i called him "weird" about 100 times.
He tried to jump into the river NAKED and i just walked away as i see him trying to take his shirt off.
We ride back to my house and decided to go to a Beatles Mania concert that night.
We went and had an awesome time together listen to The Beatles covers until 9pm.
We then just knew that we were a couple.
On May 16th, 2004 we decided we wanted to date. we just didn't tell each other.
He takes me home and we see each other every day after that Sunday.
At Day 5 -May 20th-(on a Thursday), while we were sitting on the love seat at my host parents' house as we were chatting about me going home soon, he asked me if i wanted to marry him.
If he was crazy enough to ask, well, then i was crazy enough to say, YES!
He give me his "Promise" ring that night after worship practice and i took it.
I honestly didn't think much of the ring other than it meant that one day we will see other again and marry each other. i didn't care that it was white gold and real diamonds. Yes, later on that week, The Briggs side of him came out and let me know how precious (material way type of precious) this ring was.
And I say "it was" because i lost it about 3 or 4 days before i went to Bolivia.
I was baking cookies, i left it on the kitchen counter, went to youth group and when I came back, it was gone. :/
I told my my host mom that Curly guy ask me to marry him and that i decided i wanted to that. Host dad wasn't happy at all.
One of the rules as an exchange student is that i cannot marry while in the program but i was going to go against because of Love.
On Day 7 -May 23rd-, i got to meet the parents.
It was a nice dinner and a very awkward conversation with people i didn't know well and me having a very thick Latin accent.
Curly hair and his dad decided to go in the basement for "something" and left me with my mother in law. It was a great moment!(...NOT!!!) we sat there quiet.
The few times Curly Hair and i were alone in the living room he would take pictures of us while kissing and i didn't know why.
His mom caught us once and i felt so embarrassed.
I mean, i have never brought a boy to my house in Bolivia and now, here i am kissing in the living room with a boyfriend??? and getting caught by his mom??? i felt SO ASHAMED!!!

That following week, i got a couple of phone calls from his Dad trying to figure this whole wedding and papers thing. i decided to call my mom that week as well, to let her know that i wasn't going back home in a couple of weeks and that i might not see her for a long, long time again.
Honestly, she never believed me.
At the end of the week, i decided i was too homesick to marry Curly Hair, and that whether i wanted to or not, i just HAD to go back home.
I let Curly Hair know and he was quite sad and so was i.
When June 4th came we stayed up all night with each other, waiting for June 5th to arrive and have to say goodbye to one another.
the ride to the airport was so short, i wanted to be in the car for longer so i didn't have to say goodbye or even have to get to the airport.
We waited for my flight to get there and it just felt too short.
I cried so hard before i had to go through the gates, that after a few minutes the plane took off, i felt asleep and arrive in Detroit.
I got on another the plane in Detroit and cried hard again since i felt that it was true, i was getting farther and farther away from Grand Rapids and from the love of my life so i fell asleep again and woke up in Miami.
By the time i got on the airplane from Miami, i had no tears left to cry but i did feel my heart brake in tiny little pieces.
There was no turning back. i was on the direct flight to Bolivia.
I got to Bolivia and it just didn't feel like home anymore. My body was there but my heart was left in Michigan with Curly Hair.
I got homesick after being in Bolivia for a couple of days and the feeling of going back to Michigan just wasn't going away. But i just had to adjust once again.
Curly Hair and I used letters, emails, skype and phone to keep in touch with each other for 14 months until finally on July 14th, 2005 i had to go to the airport and pick up my "GHOST" boyfriend.
Yes! that is the name my mom gave him, and she couldn't believe the Gringo was actually there, in front of her.
The guy that i got phone calls from for 14 months, the guy that promised many times to come to Bolivia sooner and failed to do so was FINALLY there to marry her daughter. UNBELIEVABLE!


On July 19th, 2005 we decided to elope and start our lives together as ONE.
July 19th, 2005 is the day i became MRS. Briggs!!!
We stayed in Bolivia until Nov. 10th. but got married through the church on Nov. 6th, 2005 so my family can see me be married to the love of my life and for them to have some peace about the guy that was taking me away from them.
I got married legally in the USA on Jan. 20 or 21, 2006(not sure anymore) for the sake of the Government and for Curly's parents sake too.
Went to NYC for our honeymoon. Came back and moved to our first home on Feb. 6th, 2006. Got pregnant in July 28 or 30, 2006 and LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER!!!
After almost 3 babies later, 5 1/2 years of marriage we still love each like the first day and my heart still aches and i cry when i think or write about us having to say goodbye at the airport.
That is the one sad feeling i cannot get rid off, i am just glad i never have to say goodbye to Curly Hair ever again, unless God decides He wants to take one of us away from the other but we hope that will be when we pee in our pants and cant walk that well anymore and that once one goes the other one wont take too long to go as well.