My Blog

ATS conference in San Francisco, May 2007 might be the most fruitful conference I’ve ever attended. Unexpectedly, during this conference I met my future boss from NIOSH. It happened we shared the same yellow taxi on our way back to our hotel after an informal dinner with other women participants. I could not believe my hearing when she offered me to do a postdoc at NIOSH in West Virginia. NIOSH is a very well-known and respected institute in the field of occupational medicine and the thought of working there after my study has never crossed my mind. But she was very serious and told me to contact her after I finish my study. Later on I found out that my supervisor mentioned my name to her in another conference, and I am very grateful to him for what he considered as small favor…

Also in May 2007, I met my husband, Dudin, after the conference. I still remember when I got my US visa in early 2007, the first thing I did was searching for US map on the internet. “Hmmm… where should I go after the conference?” Then I saw Los Angeles as the nearby city. “That’s it!” I said. “I will visit Universal Studio and Hollywood!” I have the privilege to travel by plane to San Francisco and stay in a nice hotel there; all expenses covered by my university. Flying to Los Angeles will only cost me 100$ extra for the flight ticket. What a nice deal!

I was so excited and started contacting my friends who live in California. I was very fortunate. Ratih, my high school friend who has been living in San Bernardino with her husband Faisal, kindly offered me to stay with her and to guide me during my short visit to LA. Since I started my study in the Netherlands, I have been used to travel alone, most of the time as backpacker. So, Ratih’s offer was very luxurious! More over, I haven’t seen her since we graduated from high school in Denpasar in 1995. For both of us, my trip gave us opportunity to have a small reunion! And we did our reunion by climbing the hill where the Hollywood landmark stands, unforgettable!

Ratih asked my husband, who is the cousin of her husband, to take me around Los Angeles. I will not forget the day I met him for the first time. It was a sunny Friday. Together with his friend Taufik, we literally drove around downtown Los Angeles to find a mosque for Friday prayer. We finally found King Fadh’s mosque by the time people left the mosque after the prayer, better late than never J Afterwards Taufik left, and the two of us drove around Hollywood. Eventually that’s our first date and we took our first pictures in front of Kodak theatre and Hollywood walk of fames. That’s how things were started.

Fifteen months later, after hundreds of emails, text messages, and long hours of chatting, we got married! Not to mention romantic surprises that I often received: from singing card, buckets of flowers to box of Belgian chocolates J On Aug 17^th 2008 we had our official wedding ceremony; an extraordinary one I must say. Due to rather complex circumstances, we had a teleconference where he was represented by his brother. This was also something that never crossed my mind and I am very grateful to our parents for their profound understanding and acceptance.

After 5 weeks officially married and 13 months since our last meeting, on October 2^nd 2008 we met again for the first time as husband and wife. For a couple who only met lively 4 days before getting married, it was a thrilling moment. Alhamdulillah, I was very relieved that both of us were very convenient and did not have to adjust with each other. I hope it will stay like that for the rest of our married life, insya Allah…

On a sunny Sunday on October 5^th 2008 we had our wedding reception in a mosque in Orange County, organized by his family and friends from the Muslim community. It was very unfortunate that none of our parents, brothers, or sisters could attend the reception due to visa problem. Nevertheless, it was one of the most wonderful days in my life and we both were very grateful to everyone, especially to Ratih and Faisal and the Umboh family, for their enormous and sincere contribution.

Just a few weeks ago, I got news that completed my happiness this year. I got accepted to work at NIOSH starting summer 2009. Alhamdulillah, I could not thank God more for all the blessing that I received. My acceptance leads me one step closer to reunite with my husband who is now living thousand miles away from me. My friend, Vica, wisely comforted me with her saying that since we are now married, Allah opens all the good paths for us, to be together, Insya Allah…

So, on this latest day of the year, I’d like to express my gratitude to everyone, especially my parents, sisters, and friends who have been my endless supporters. To my husband, thank you for being you! I do not think I could be happier if I have to share with someone else. I do hope that next year we could celebrate the New Year together. Really look forward to meet you again in April dear!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 at 1:08 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.