A Love Like No Other {Share Your Story – Wedding Contest}
Thursday, September 3rd, 2009So, I’d like to post the first finalist for the contest to win FREE wedding photography. Thank you to all who have submitted entries. I am still taking entries until SEPTEMBER 10TH, so you still have time if you want to participate!
Over the next couple weeks, I will be posting all the finalists’ stories one at a time so they can be read. Every story is unique and different from each other and there was something about each that sparked something in me that made me want to share. So, without further ado….our first finalist……
Meet Mike & Annette – Below is the picture they submitted as well as their story. 
At 22 years old, I got on a plane to Tunisia, a country in northern Africa, not knowing a soul on the other side. I had received a grant from the government to do research in the field of sociology for a year. After the loneliest three months of my life I began to really make friends and get a hold of the language enough to feel like I had a personality again! After my first year in Tunisia I was hooked…I set up shop there and got a job teaching English. Four years later I opened an art and community center; my goal was to encourage emerging artists and use art in the community to begin dealing with problems such as domestic violence and youth at risk. All this was very exciting but left me with my hands full and my heart empty…it seemed impossible that I would meet someone when I lived on the far side of the globe.
In January of 2007 I was invited to share my experiences living in Tunisia at national conference for youth in Anaheim, CA. Little did I know that accepting this invitation would bring a surprising twist of fate that led to me meeting (or reconnecting) with the love of my life! Mike Hammond knew another one of the speakers at the conference, and although he had no connection whatsoever to the conference itself he flew in from his home in Los Vegas to see his friend. As he scanned the list of speakers he saw my name and said to his friend, “hey, I think I know that girl!” We had attended the same small private school when I was in 7th grade and he was in 9th grade…and although everyone knows that junior high and high schoolers don’t mix, he remembered me. Mike and his friend tracked me down and we hung out throughout the weekend…although I was CLUELESS to any feelings on his part: I just thought he was a super nice guy and it was a fun connection to our early years. As I climbed the platform to speak Mike got this overwhelming feeling, “This is the girl that you can love and partner in life with!” Mike tried to find me after the session was over…but with 4,000 people attending he couldn’t. He felt completely defeated and returned to his room to pack up to travel home in the morning.
Mike had given up hope of connecting with me again– I was headed back to Africa…but luck was on his side. His friend found them both a ride to the airport…the same van I was riding in. Mike was still shy and overwhelmed by the fact that he was smitten with a girl who lived in Africa, so he told me he might want to bring some of his artist friends over to help out at the community center and asked for my email.
From Mike’s first email I knew that the relationship was going somewhere. We kicked of a distance relationship of email, skype, and phone calls. We managed to see each other ever 3-4 months.
This May I was doing my own personal art show which I had spent a year preparing…My friend Sally asked me if she could book me in for a “girl day” the Friday before the show. I said sure, but as life got busier and busier in preparation, I kept trying to reschedule. Sally was adamant that I told her we could spend the day together and that I HAD to go. I started to get annoyed; couldn’t she understand that I had to finish this art show that I had spent so many long, hard hours preparing? Sally insisted and I went out with her to get my hair and nails all done up…then she said we had to dress up nice cause we were going out. She took me to Sidi Bou Said, a gorgeous traditional village on the side of the Mediterranean that had inspired many of my paintings. When we got out of the car she blindfolded me…as she led me down the hill she asked, “Annette, do you have ANY idea what we’re doing right now?” “Nope…no idea.” “REALLY??? You really have no idea what we’re doing right now???” I really didn’t, I thought Sally had gone mad. Just then she took the blindfold off and there was Mike, with my favorite view of Tunis in the background, surrounded by flowers and down on one knee, “Annette Joy McCabe…will you marry me?” I said yes!
We are getting married January 8th, 2010 in Camas, Washington where I grew up (Mike grew up in Portland, bonus to have both families in the same place). We will be returning to Tunisia after the honeymoon. Mike loves Tunisia and is looking forward to opening new avenues for the art center. He is planning on teaching graphic arts and website design, his specialty, as a job creation project for unemployed youth.
We would be overwhelmed and thrilled with free wedding photography on our big day! There is some much travel involved having a wedding in the U.S. where our families can take part. We want our best friends from Tunisia to be able to be there to celebrate with us and share the big day. I have two close Tunisian friends and Sally, Mike’s accomplice, who I would love to bring over to be bridesmaids. Free wedding photography would mean I would have the money to buy the girls tickets…the people who have walked life with me and been there through the ups and downs of living cross-culturally could be there as I take this new, huge, and beautiful step in life!
