It was early in 1997 when I heard about these places on the Internet called ‘Chat Rooms’ and I wanted to see what they were all about. I was a single 36-year-old male living alone in my 3-bedroom house, one room converted to a computer room. I had several friends but some were getting married and others were moving away, and I wanted to broaden my field of friends some so I figured what harm could come from a ‘Chat Room’.

I logged into Yahoo! Chat and quickly made some new friends on my first time in the Thirty-Something chat room. It was nice to meet people from all over the US and find out about their cities and families. I enjoyed it so much that I went back again a few days later. Well, that was when my life CHANGED FOR THE BETTER!

I was watching the messages go by and then a newbie came online and was learning to use the system. Even though it was only my second time in the chat room, I was able to help this person out. I showed her some tricks on changing the color of the text and how to send expressions. We were having a good time and then we started talking about ourselves. It turned out that the person I was helping was a lady from Singapore and was single like me. We had the same interests and views on many things and hit it off BIG! The only problem was that, with the time difference of 13 hours, there was a short time we could talk in the morning or evening before one of us had to go to work, but we figured it out and for almost a year we talked back and forth like this over the internet, and every once in a great while we would call each other - this was before webcams.

Then in September of 1997 I flew to Singapore to meet face to face with this person that I had been spending all my time with on the Internet. I met her family and even stayed at her house during my stay. We had a great time and there was none of that strange and uneasy feeling - it was as if we had been going out for years. When it came time to say good-bye the bachelor came out in me and I told her, "Don’t put all your eggs in one basket".

After making that statement she still kept talking to me online when I arrived back to the States. I thought for sure that I blew it with her, but it seemed that everything was ok. In July of 1998 she came over here to visit me, and I was so excited about it. I met her at the airport in St. Louis and drove her back to my hometown. I had made arrangements for her to stay at a friend’s apartment while in town. We had a great time traveling and just enjoying each other’s company. One day we went to the Lake of the Ozarks and stopped at a shopping mall. I took her into a jewelry store and we looked at some rings and she saw one that she liked. She tried it on and it fit as if it was made for her, how often does that happen? I purchased the ring and asked her to marry me, and she said yes.

A few days later, while we were talking and just relaxing, she told me that she had come over here with the intention of telling me that if I wasn’t ready for any type of commitment she would not answer me anymore on the internet for awhile and let me think about us. I am glad that that didn’t happen.

So we were getting married but we lived on opposite sides of the earth, how were we going to succeed? We did - using technology, Internet Chat and Email. She made the arrangements in Singapore for our wedding over there, and I made the arrangements for our very small wedding over here. We must not forget all the paper work involved with the INS just to be able to have her live here with me. When all the paper work was done it was the size of a three-inch three-ring binder, overstuffed.

On May 1, 1999 we were married in Singapore, flew out for the US a couple mornings later,, arrived back in St. Louis and drove back home. I went to work the next day and then on May 7^th, 1999 we were married in the US. We did get a short Honeymoon down at the Lake of the Ozarks, before I had to go back to work.

My wife adjusted to the US with no problem, but she did miss her family back home. She called home once or twice a week, and our monthly phone bill was close to $150 a month. Then Technology stepped in again, and we got broadband Internet and that helped some, but her family did not have a computer with a microphone and was only a Pentium 100.

In June of 2000 we had our first child and we wanted them to be able to see the baby so we took digital pictures and sent them over the Internet. Later that year my wife’s sister, who was stationed in what use to be Burma, moved back home. She purchased a much better computer and also got broadband Internet also. This made it possible for my wife to talk to her family just like over the phone. This cut our phone bill from $150 to $75 a month. Then later that year her sister and my wife installed web cameras and now they can see and hear each other using Yahoo! Chat, and our phone bill is now down to $34 a month.

To make a long story short, in March of this year we had a second child, and I was able to put a video of the baby on the Internet for them to watch, along with a video of big brother meeting his new brother also. We try to meet several times a week so that they can see the boys grow, and also so the boys can talk to their family in Singapore.

I know that you hear horror stories about how technology destroys people’s life, but I am here to say that I am one that technology has improved life more than I could have ever expected.

Malcolm L. DeBroeck