Another good love story

I love nothing better than love stories.

It was my last job as a freelance makeup artist -- I was newly pregnant, starting to feeling the woes of the first timester, and certain that after this job, I was ready to retire my makeup brushes.

Complicated how we met, but the bride was a friend of a friend who is actually the wife of one of Bozo's friend. I'd heard of her and her story before, and we first met at the birthday party of Bozo's friend's child.

The bride was bright-eyed, newly engaged, and full of love for her handsome Brazilian fiancee, who was equally bright-eyed and love-full.


Her story is one of those improbable ones ... something you'd read in a book or see at the movies, but it really happened. Born in Southern California, she was filled with wanderlust from an early age, one that led her to the Middle East where she felt the call to Islam. Although it was quite supsicious for a white woman to convert to this religion post-9/11, she knew with her entire being that it was meant to happen, and ended up becoming a media darling, sought after for her unique perspective and experience.

Shortly after her conversion, she married a fellow she met at her mosque and settled in to what she believed would be a typical and dutiful marriage that turned out to be anything but. After enduring various kinds of abuse, she took the brave step of divorcing her first abusive husband while remaining devoted to her faith.

As a single Muslim woman, she threw herself into her passions - religion, teaching, traveling - always a new adventure on the horizon. On one solo trip to Argentina, she decided to take a short ski tripwhere she started chatting with a guy from Brazil, where they hit it off very well until it was his time to leave. They didn't exchange information, but only briefly gave each other an overview of their traveling plans, telling him that she would be going on a boat ride in a few days. They parted ways, and she went on her boat trip, where she spent time with some giggling girls talking about Brazilian men ....

Her Brazilian friend couldn't get the spunky American gal out of his mind. He didn't have her phone number, but he knew she was going to get on a boat to get to another destination at a specific day and time. Although he didn't know what boat she would be getting on, he took a taxi ride, a bus ride, and walked to the ports where he took a chance and got on board an unknown boat. And his bright-eyed American friend was there.

They exchanged information, visited each other, and love grew. He converted to Islam, and they married in the mosque connected to the school she directed. Their love for each other was so powerful, their drive to be with each other was so intense that they made the impossible happen.

Now, they live in Brazil, she's expecting their first child, and she's pursuing a career in interior design. The photos she's posted of their home on Facebook show that it's definitely a great career move for her and her happiness is undoubtable.

So there you have it - the story of a woman who pursued her passions with every fiber of her being, and that of a man who literally took chance in his hands because he knew in his heart that he'd found his life's treasure.

Love happens ... sometimes when you least expect it. It really does happen that way.