How well do you communicate with your spouse

[misterbigtoe 45]

yup...i told him some news the other night and he said 'i am here for you, your not dealing with this on your own' my response was ' i am dealing on my own, because i am on my own here' ive never felt so alone.

nothing hurts more than when your feeling so down (not with this process) and you other half is 'visually' there...but not 'physically' there to hold you tight and say everything will be ok...

we have done this webchat thing for so long and only had a 'couple of years' physically together, it is hard...really hard now...the first time (pre K1) wasnt too bad, but niether of us realised, wanted (or were prepared) for this second time...knowing what we have together, as a couple...we have nothing apart...nothing 'physical', which matters a lot to me.

these past 18 months have been the hardest months of my life, i am married, for the first time in my life, and i am so far away from him...being a telephone call or web image away from my husband and family just isnt kicking it with me! but...we do what we do until such time as the US government decide our fate! <---((hmmm...my signature me thinks...lol))

i dread to think how either of us would cope if i got a denial from the consulate, and i really dont understand how they can be so cold in dishing out denials anyway!

I know what you mean. Looking at timelines, We have waited nowhere near as long as you have but are dealing with some of the same issues. It is gawd awful difficult when B is having a really difficult day and I know that all she needs is that embrace and to just let out the frustration whether it is just a long sigh or a few tears. And you are right, telling her that we dealing with it together although true, we cannot fully deal with things together and until our bureaucrats see fit to allow us to be joined not only heart and soul, but time and place too, until the allow us to to actually be together!

From the other side of the relationship, It is almost unbearable to see our wives keeping the stiff upper lip to try and shield us from the inevitable tears when all we want with all of our heart is to reach through the cursed compute screen or phone and put our arms around her.....................

The inhumanity of the system is truly unfortunate particularly when the inhumanity appears to by disproportionately unleashed on all of us who are conscientiously following the law.

[misterbigtoe 45]

Skype skype and more skype!! I could move my laptop around and my hubby and I chatted while I did laundry...cooked...watched the oscars.. it was like having him there with me all the time. (Except of course for the cuddles... missed those alot!)

For some reason, Skype does not work well with wifey's web service. Number one, she has cable DSL and no wireless capability. Also, data rates are slow there so even good services work sub par. Hahaha, the apartment in Ulaanbaatar is small enough that even with a wired internet connection we can chat while she's doing laundry, cooking or almost anything. Our little son is so funny, likes me to watch cartoons with him, so he will turn the webcam so I can see the tv too!

[misterbigtoe 45]

Wow, that is the first I have heard of T-mobile offering a free intnl texting option. What plan do they offer that on? T-mobile is a GSM carrier as is ATT. My contract with ATT is done so It might be worth a switch for me.

[BellaRose 7]

I wish my husband had access to the internet and that phone calls weren't 50cents a minute. He recently mailed me a passport sized photo of him which was the first time I saw him in a year.

[charlize56 4]

me and my fiance use yahoo,skype and oovoo,all voicecall coz hes lazyto typed it i mean using keyboard.we talk everyday as in twice a day[morning and night,before he go to sleep and before he go to work...

[pushbrk 12,876]

Wow, that is the first I have heard of T-mobile offering a free intnl texting option. What plan do they offer that on? T-mobile is a GSM carrier as is ATT. My contract with ATT is done so It might be worth a switch for me.

My T-Mobile family plan offers unlimited international texting but it isn't free. It's $30 a month for all lines on the plan. We have four lines.

[crystal01 29]

We are connected 24/7. We used Skype when we first started talking, then gmail chat and calls since it loads faster and all archive is saved on the server. So wherever I may be chatting with him, I have the transcript. We only have 1 hr difference then. But now that he is back in the US, he doesn't have internet on base but still the only time we don't communicate is when 1 of us is sleeping or are really busy with work. We both have iPhones so that's what we mostly use. It is either the YM app or the new one - KIK Messenger. Anyone else uses that? I find it cool that it's real time and I can see on my phone when he is typing and when my msg is delivered and read.

When I am at home we use MagicJack or we call each other's cellphones once in awhile since long distance rates nowadays are pretty cheap. It's around 2.50 pesos/min or roughly $0.05 cents/min on my end

And then of course there's Facebook.

[George & Gina 29]

Skype all the way, your able to use skype mobile so its pretty convenient.

+1

Being able to call the wife from the iPhone is great. Nowadays we normally use Skype for video chat, previously we've used Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. Fewer problems with Skype. I've tried Oovoo before without much success.

George

[bestofboston 36]

I purchased a magic jack and sent it to my wife in the Philippines. She has internet at home. She connects the magic jack to her computer and her cordless phone to the magic jack. That way she can call me anywhere in the USA at no charge. That enables her to call me on my cell phone, my work phone and my home phone at no cost.

She can go anywhere in the house and talk to me while I can be anywhere in or out of the home.

We also use Yahoo Messenger when we want to see each other on webcam. We do that several times a week.

[Bob g 11]

My wife and I talk everyday for about an hour or so, with Yahoo Messenger/headsets/webcams, for 2 years now. 12 hour time difference is no problem. The webcam has been a very big help, in that it is easier to show an object rather than try to explain what an item is. A friend told me they use "Italkbb" for calls to and from China. They say it does not costs very much at all. I will have to do a search on it.....

[I & JJ <3 9]

We use windows live messenger to chat and use our webcams and I've had it set to archive our conversations, however, after it reaches its max it asks if it should delete older messages and I always clicked "yes". We've been using this since we first started dating so the last thing I was thinking about was saving all of our conversations to use as proof of our relationship someday (silly me for not thinking ahead).

For our phone calls we use Magic Jack but it freezes a lot if you are using the internet while you speak so we've cut down on that (I have to check and see if I can get a record of all of our calls using Magic Jack). My husband also calls me direct from his cell phone sometimes and I buy calling cards as well.

We used to send each other text messages but Verizon charges 0.25 cents per message so I've stopped doing that. He found a website that allows him to send me text messages (ipsh I think) and his cell phone company (Viva tu voz) has a web feature so I started sending him text messages through that. Now that we both have blackberries we communicate through bbmessenger, which is great because we are connected all day everyday.

So now we've progressed from simply talking at night when we are both available to communicating at all hours of the day.

[truebrit 4]

We use windows live messenger to chat and use our webcams and I've had it set to archive our conversations, however, after it reaches its max it asks if it should delete older messages and I always clicked "yes". We've been using this since we first started dating so the last thing I was thinking about was saving all of our conversations to use as proof of our relationship someday (silly me for not thinking ahead).

when the file reaches its max all you have to do is rename the old file and then msn automatically starts a new one, we did this when we were doing the K1 visa, and i renamed them to include the convo start and end date...didnt stop a computer crash loosing them though...

i now only have one file from 2004...somewhere...

tip of the day - back up, back up, back up...and if your not sure if you backed up...do it again

[Skye_Cohen 1]

My T-Mobile family plan offers unlimited international texting but it isn't free. It's $30 a month for all lines on the plan. We have four lines.

sorry, i said free but what i meant is you pay a flat rate and after that you aren't charged any more. yes im on a family plan too and also pay 30 for all the lines on it, not 30 if only a single line though. still i was spending about 50 before the plan was introduced

[VanessaTony 3,567]

** moved from "IR-1/CRI-1 Process & Procedures" to "General Polls" as this is not a CR1 process qn **

[LaL 418]

Communication can be pretty easy with an ocean/border/whatever between you. Misunderstandings can happen too of course, but I believe you can't tell exactly how you communicate with each other until you are living together day in and day out, month after month, year after year!

I realize the OP is actually asking about methods used to communicate, but I was answering the topic question