How Jenny met David

Everyone has their own love story and I'm sure your love story is beautiful, so is mine, lol. This is  what my husband thought when we first met at JFK airport:

David: I’ll never forget the day Jenny and I first met at JFK airport. She was tinier but really gorgeous. But she had this foot thick wall of ice between us—it was pretty awkward, especially after we’d been writing for so long. Eventually she thawed a little, and we shared a really nice, never-let-you-go kind of hug, and then we were pretty much on a long date throughout her stay in New York. I would say i loved her at  first sight. 

We are so different, but we’ve been adapting to each other; so much that Jenny is hardly the same girl she was last year. She went from a party girl with her dial stuck on “Sexy” to a sweet girl who can be ready in 5 minutes with a T-shirt and shorts. It is really a miracle — over year ago I’d never have fit the description of her ideal husband, yet Jenny is totally committed with her choice. I am extremely lucky that destiny brought Jenny to me. Each day we learn something new from each other and I adore her more and more.

And for me 


I’m not your typical Vietnamese girl—everyone says I’m an independent, outspoken woman full of character. I’m just not a stay-at-home wife who wants to look after her husband full-time. My life was full of travel, exploring new places, trying new foods, hanging out with friends. Even though I’d had quite a few relationships, I never felt I had that special someone. Maybe I was afraid I’d turn out like many of my friends who were suffering after miserable breakups.

Love finds people who aren’t looking…

I’d been working for an Australian-based traveling company, providing counseling and recommendations about traveling in Vietnam to top-shelf clients. One day I was asked to design a tailor-made tour for a family from the States (we don’t get many requests for bird-watching). As I was processing their visas, the picture of one decent guy immediately caught my attention. His name is David from New York, and he was going on a Southeast Asia tour with his mom and his brother’s family.
I thought, “it would be great to have a cute friend in New York. Maybe he could show me around.” But it was a silly daydream; I’m not a tour guide and I knew we wouldn’t meet.

The months flew by and I totally forgot about the whole thing until the agency forwarded me an email from David. He thanked me for the wonderful trip and asked me for the contact of his tour guide because he wanted to send him a gift. A couple of months later, the agent went to South Africa and asked David to email me himself:

“Hello Jenny! My name is David Perry. My mother, Laura Perry and I had a phenomenal trip to Vietnam & Cambodia with your company. We had an especially excellent guide in Hoi An and Hue. We wanted to thank him personally but the email address he gave us did not work. It's been a long time, but could you please find an email address for us to contact him? We'd appreciate it so much. Thanks again for a fantastic trip” 

I replied:

“Thank you for your email. I’m glad to know that your family had the fantastic trip in Vietnam. I just contacted with your guide and he said that you could contact him at the email address. Aw, i remembered you live in New York? I’ve been in NYC couple times. New York is an amazing city. I’m coming there again at the beginning of June. Do you know any new places to explore, a place for local people not a typical tourist place?”

David listed all the places he thought might have me interested and he said that he would love to ask me out for dinner to express his gratitude. After checking my schedule, I agreed, and I sent him my photo so he would recognize me when we meet at Central Park. Ever since that day, we kept emailing each other and eventually we figured out the reason why David couldn’t email his tour guide. He accidentally forgot about to put “.vn” at the end of the guy’s address, no wonder not one of his emails ever reached that guy. Up to now, thinking back about the past, I believed that my marriage was guided by destiny.
Just before my trip to New York, I was in a motorcycle accident. I wasn’t hurt badly but I had to take a week off from work. I would have died of boredom, but David and I kept in touch on facebook. One day he bought a headset and we talked face-to-face on Skype. He always cheered me up, and I realized that he liked me a lot.
The day I arrived in New York finally came. Walking myself out of customs at JFK airport, I scanned the crowd for the cute guy I got to know from afar and found someone totally different from my expectations. He looked better in his photos and for some reason I thought he was tall. But I could tell he was extremely happy when he saw me. After a few awkward minutes, I let him give me a tight loving hug- the hug that glued our two hearts together. I extended my stay to give him a chance and was able to forget about my ideal in men.

(To be continued)

below is the cartoon my husband made for our Wedding entrance.