结婚纪念日分隔两国 感觉如何？

From late January to early May is what my wife and I call our anniversary season. It is a collection of important dates that led to our becoming a couple, marrying and spending virtually all of our wedded life in China.

从一月底到五月初是我们夫妻俩的结婚季，其中几个重要日子让我们最终结合并在中国度过婚后生活。

This year's season is particularly poignant, given that we are having to celebrate while in different countries due to disruptions caused by COVID-19.

由于疫情暴发，今年的结婚纪念日我们只能在中美两国分开度过。

To understand the story, you have to know that we found each other relatively late in life, at the transition in age from our 40s to our 50s. We had both been married before, and I have three children -- all boys -- who were entering young adulthood.

我们俩认识时都快五十岁了。我们都结过婚，我还有三个成年的儿子。

We had both enrolled in a computer dating service. As I read her profile, I realized that she was born and had grown up only about an hour's drive from where I spent part of my teenage years in the US state of Alabama.

我们都注册了婚恋网站。我在看她的个人资料时，发现她出生长大的地方距离我少年时期待过的地区只有一小时车程。

I had not dated a woman from my part of the United States in many years. But when we met in 2010, we hit it off. Our first real date was on May 8 of that year, though we had been talking online for a few weeks. We had a certain amount of automatic understanding, given our similar cultural background.

尽管我多年都没有约会过美国女士，但当我们在2010年见面时都对彼此印象颇佳。虽然之前我们网聊了好几周，但5月8日我们才第一次见面。我们文化背景相似，特别聊得来。

Dee was a smart, capable and attractive woman with a sense of humor. She said she was attracted to my being a gentleman typical of our part of the country, but a worldly one with a broad perspective on life. Our courtship wasn’t always smooth, but we kept coming back to each other. 

她聪明、能干、幽默有魅力。她说被我的绅士风度和见多识广所吸引。我们的感情之路并非一帆风顺，但总能回归彼此。

After several years, we were at the point of either staying together or drifting apart. I had almost lost her, but at this point, a job offer came in for me to become an editor in China. We had talked about living in China together, and I could not imagine living this dream without her. So, on Jan 24, 2012, I asked her to come with me. We were both scared of such a big step, but pushed forward anyway.

约会几年后，我们需要决定是否继续走下去。当时我本来已经快失去她了，但我得到了来中国做编辑的工作机会。我们曾讨论过在中国共同生活的话题，我也无法想象这个梦想里没有她。所以在2012年的1月24日，我问她要不要一起去中国。我们都害怕迈出这一大步，但还是不管不顾地前进了。

I proposed marriage on Feb 12 at an outdoor bar in Lake Worth Beach, Florida, where we were having dinner with my eldest son. After that, things moved quickly.  Each of us owned a house, and we had to sell them both, finish up at our jobs, sell many belongings and reduce the rest to a small storage space. We became legally married on Feb 21 at a local courthouse.

2月12日，我们和我的大儿子在佛罗里达一家露天酒吧吃晚饭时，我求婚了。之后我们迅速操办了一切，卖掉各自的房子和很多物品，结束手头的工作，在2月21日登记结婚。

The next few months were exhilarating and terrifying as we prepared for a radical change. As a child, I had read a biography of Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, so I was interested in China, but most of my foreign experience was in Latin America. Dee had spent time in Mexico City and saw the allure of living abroad.

之后几个月我们忙于迎接挑战。我小时候读过孙中山的自传，对中国很感兴趣，但我多数的海外生活经验都来自于南美洲。我妻子也在墨西哥城待过，见识过海外生活的魅力。

Our wedding ceremony was on March 31 beside the ocean in Jupiter, Florida, with my brother officiating. We had just over a month to wrap everything up and get on a plane to fly halfway across the world. On May 3, we boarded a China Eastern Airlines flight in Los Angeles bound for Shanghai, arriving exhausted and dazed but very happy.

我们在3月31日在佛罗里达举行了沙滩婚礼，由我的兄弟主持。随后一个月，我们整理行囊跨越大半个地球，在5月3日从洛杉矶飞抵上海，疲劳但却快乐。

We were so exhausted we barely moved from our hotel for several days, finally venturing out and finding our first culinary delight in China – jianbing. Two years later, we moved to Beijing, and now, eight years after first stepping foot in China, we still know we made the right decision.

劳累使我们在酒店休息了好几天，之后出门，第一次真正享受的中国美食就是煎饼。两年后，我们搬到了北京。现在我们已经在中国生活了八年，依然庆幸当年正确的选择。