25 years after getting married we decided to renew our marriage vows. Actually we were first thinking to do this at a local church – but than we decided to just do it as a video. So all of you you witness and we can go back to listen to our own vows anytime in the future. The recording was a very special – and also a very emotional – moment for the two of us. But the vows are not just a video or a show – it is a statement, that even after 25 years we stick together – for better or worse. We believe it is important to make commitments to each other – especially in a time where it seems that the traditional view of marriage is replaced by an often short-term arrangement between two people. In German, there is a term “Lebensabschnittsgefährte” which literally means “Companion for a period of life”. But marriage is much more than that.
Tag Archives: marriage
25 years ago – exactly on January 21st 1993 at 7 am – we celebrated the start of our union with a garden wedding. Yes it was 7 am and not pm: we choose a nice location facing the beach at Insular Hotel Davao City. During the day it gets so hot and we had the choice of either morning or late afternoon. Since it was often raining at night during the rainy season we choose to have the ceremony in the morning. We started 7 am Filipino time (meaning to say it was around 8 am …) We were very thankful for around 200 friends and relatives to be there. But the very highlight was that the family of Thomas came from Germany to attend the wedding. Our pastor Ernie Abella really gave good insights on marriage. He knew both of us as we were attending his church – “The Jesus Fellowship” in Davao City. We were so blessed to have him at our wedding. But there was a number of
We went back to some places where we had our first dates. Both of our favorite places have now different owners – many things have changed in the last 25 years. But here are still sweet memories – not only to the Hallo-Hallo and to the places it was served. You do not know what Halo-Halo is? See at the movie and look for more details online. On our first dates we were seldom alone – normally we brought some chaperones to be with us. For us our chaperones were usually Rosemarie’s sister or her brother or other friends. Wikipedia explains the following about a chaperone: A chaperone in its original social usage was a person who for propriety’s sake accompanied an unmarried girl in public: usually she was an older married woman, and most commonly the girl’s own mother. In modern social usage, a chaperone is a responsible adult who accompanies and supervises young people. Maybe the younger ones feel strange about that – but even today in many countries chaperones are there
Almost 27 years ago we met for the first time. Thomas went as a volunteer with the mission organisation YOUTH WITH A MISSION to the Philippines and met Rosemarie during that time. Since that time we are in love with each other and now we look back to 25 years of marriage and a family with three wonderful children. In 11 days we will fly back to Davao City where it all began. Our first date, getting to know each other, our wonderful wedding, our first baby – and also our first crisis … We are both so excited to be back in the Philippines and reflect many experiences and places of our relationship. You are all invited to join our story as we will document it with this blog and many videos. You can subscribe to our E-Mail newsletter, to our Youtube channel or follow us on Facebook or Instagram. It is also our desire to interact with you – so please send us your feedback and also share your own experiences with us.
It‘s Christmas time again. Time to celebrate and also a time of traditions. All over the world, people celebrate the birthday of Jesus Christ. In some countries like in Germany, this is often a silent night. A night at home with the family. In other countries Christmas Eve is a big party with lots of food, lots of people and loud music – sometimes even with fireworks. We wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.
Family and in-laws are often a reason for conflict in marriages – much more for intercultural couples. Every family is different and we are so thankful, that we got two wonderful families. In Germany the extend families (the parents, uncles, aunties and other relatives of the couple) are for many couples not so important. There are many families who have little contact to the rest of the family. It is also sad to see that there are more and more families where the relationship between grown-up children and parents are destroyed. In Germany normally a young family tries to be independent from their parents or the rest of the family. On the other side family in the Philippines (at least in most cases and in the family of Rose) is considered very important. Often after marriage the young couple stays with one of the parents in the same house. Finances are shared and everybody is involved in taking care of the children. How do you experience family? How is
Even after almost 25 years of marriage we realise that our marriage is not perfect. The way we grew up is different, we have different personalities and we are just not perfect. But we do not need to be perfect – we decided to stick together and we want to encourage other cross-cultural couples to do the same. Don’t easily give up in your marriage – don’t throw away your relationship – just fix what is broken – just as this couple said who was married for 65 years. With our messages we want to encourage you – but we also love to receive feedback from you – either here on our blog – or just privatly via e-mail or any other form of message.