[Bricker]

I'm newly registered to the forums, although I've been reading the DR1 news summaries for ages and have read enough of the forum posts to hopefully have a feel for things here.

In any event, just to add to the stories... I'm a US citizen, married for three years to a Dominicana, and we have a two-year-old son. We are very happy together, and very much made for each other.

I will happily grant, though, that ours is not the most typical story. We met in Minneapolis, for one thing! My wife was a lawyer, although non-practicing, in the DR; she worked for the British Embassy. My father-in-law is very active in the Knights of Columbus, a charitable fraternal organization, and so am I. That's what brought both my bride and me to Minneapolis: the annual meeting of the governing body of the Knights was held there that year.

So many of the trouble signs mentioned here and elsewhere simply didn't exist -- in fact, my wife and I have talked about mis-matched marriages at length, since she worked visa approvals for the UK during her time at the embassy and was well-acquainted with the sorts of couples that appear.

She had never even considered leaving the country until I came along, and it was my greatest good fortune that I was able to persuade her to leave her friends and family behind and come with me.

Anyway - ours is unquestionably a successful relationship story, albeit not a typical one. But just thought I'd share...

- Rick