The Cat(ch) Came Back

I'd just like to start off by telling you that I'm extremely thrilled with myself for thinking of that title.

Many of you know when Kenneth and I first met he left for Nigeria about a week an a half later. So much happened in that week and a half that we knew right away this would be a forever thing. Except, I'm so pessimistic that I thought he wouldn't come back. In fact, I told him many times that I thought he wouldn't come back. There was so much that could have happened when he went back home. Swirling in my head were these possibilities:

• He meets someone else back home.
• His family introduces him to someone else back home and he settles.
• He doesn't want to come back to Korea because he misses his family/friends/job/homeland
• He gets injured there and no one knows about me so doesn't contact me and all communication is lost

He always laughed and said to me, "Of course I will come back." But I always questioned it. I didn't really believe it.

Before he left he told me he would call me every day and we had text and email, but I just had it in the back of my mind that I might not hear from him. So, I didn't fully commit to the idea of "us" to protect myself.

And then low and behold he did what he said he would do.

COMMITMENT. TRUST. This is what it looks like. 

He called he every day, often more than once. Even if I missed his call because it was at 2am, he still called. When he got home he told me his parents (who stayed with most of the time) don't have a good wifi signal so he would often drive into town to call me. Just think about this. Multiple times a day he would drive in just to call me for 5 mins AND WE JUST MET. He gave me his word and he kept it. And it's not like he was just sitting around when he went there. He was clearing things up with his job, sorting it all out. He was buying land as an investment, catching up with family and friends, meeting cousins he'd never met before. He bought land and excitedly called amongst a patch of tall grass with a man standing beside the beginnings of a pillar where the house will be built. "This is for us!"

What?

But he knew. He knew and I knew hoped and he COMMITTED TO IT WHOLE-HEARTEDLY WITHOUT LOOKING BACK.

I just can't get over that.

I have major abandonment and trust issues. I told him that right away. And he has met the challenge with his consistency. I can't tell you how fulfilling this is to me.

The cat(ch) came back. He just couldn't stay away!

Love,

Alli

Pics from this past Sunday at Seoul Forest.