Joel and Yolanda met 40 years ago, in 6th grade of elementary at the boarding school known as ‘Colpac’ in Navojoa Sonora.

Theres was a customary thing within students that it was to send little ‘love’notes to the girl or guy you liked. Aparently Joel had set eyes on Yolanda since then, but Yolanda showed no interest so he shifted his romantic advances to another girl!

School year came to and end and Joel left to go back home in California and Yolanda never knew nor had contact with him since.

It was funny to come to know Yolanda frequently visited friends in Los Angeles CA for several years; and Joel a born and raised an Angeleno never crossed paths! Even having a lot of people in common. They never saw each other nor made the effort to know what had happened with their lives.

While Yolanda lived in Tijuana, she noticed Joel showing up on FB, but thought nothing of it. And Joel just trying to reconnect with old friends and aquaintances never thought antyhing more than just that.

Some likes on Yolanda’s FB and a comment later they reconnected casually as old aquaintances do: How’re you? Where are you now? Are you married? With kids? Where do you live? One friend to friend phone call let to daily calls where they found themselves so connected they both thought “Where is this going?” Yolanda without hesitation asked the previous question and Joel’s reponse was “let’s get to know each other”

When both of them had stated they were not on the look for no one nor ready to be in a realtionship! The connection was so deep they thought, move forward to the next level felt like the right thing to do💕

God was brought into the equation and they knew this was serious.

They agreed to meet after 40 years and chose Chihuahua to see each other. That encounter was more than both could ask for and a continuation of the deep conversations they previously carried.

Traveling from Tijuana, Yolanda took off in the wee hours and after a couple hours of flight and some dramamine 😵‍💫 she arrives at the tiny airport, and rushes to baggage claim, deciding if wait for her bag or run to the bathroom, choses to wait and grab her bag to at least comb her hair, bursh her teeth and apply lipstick and be presentable for this special meeting.

This ‘detour” took longer than expected and she hears the conveyor belt stop and rushes out the bathroom only to see the baggage claim already empty thinking “Oh shut, he will think I stood him up!”

In pure Yolanda’s manner, she rushes through the automatic doors looking for the familiar face and at the corner of her eye she sees the handsome cowboy steadfast walking towards her with a black hat, dressed in a sports jacket and white shirt, with a huge smile and his hands up saying “What happened?”

Yolanda feels so safe at his sight, broadly smiles and both long embraced! Joel says “After I saw the last person exit the baggage claim, and there was no sight of you, my heart sank… my watch starts beeping -Your high blood pressure is going up-

They both laughed and decided this was not an ordinary love story and was it was one for the books!

Meeting at that amazing time of re connection and with Joel proposing, both knew this was a forever relationship.

Little did they know God has been -playing cupid- all along these years and was waiting for both of them to go through what they went in life to be mature, be emotionally responsible, and be at peace with life for them to meet at the right moment at the right place!

Y&J

Wedding Day