Our story - Tiffinnie & Áthila

[HeyTiffinnie 4]

I'm Tiffinnie, the petitioner of our I-129F, I'm 23 years old and I live in California's state capitol. My fiancé is Áthila, he is 24 (going to be 25 this year) and he is a born/raised Brazilian from Valinhos. We have a 6 month old son, Oliver. He is our pride and joy, though completely unplanned (especially in the long distance relationship situation). Oliver lives here with me in California and Áthila visits for a few months at a time. When I met Áthila I told him "we're going to get married and have kids. So you might as well get comfortable with that fact now, because it will happen." and I was so right. We talked via msn and skype from July to November when we decided the attraction wasn't going away, but it was growing and we were going to give this 7,000 miles of distance a true test. In just a short period of time he became my best friend and we were constantly in contact. Our first meeting in person was in July 2011 and he said nothing, he just kissed me. The month went by too fast and he had to go back home... His next trip was in November and he stayed through to February... When he left, I started getting very sick... I assumed it was the flu because everyone else had the flu... so that made sense because I hadn't missed a single birth control pill. I was less than a month pregnant and I was getting so sick it became scary and intolerable. My mom suggested I take a pregnancy test (a suggestion I rolled my eyes at) but the minute the pee hit that test kit, it turned bright red and showed that I was most definitely pregnant... I had to announce this to Áthila over skype. Neither of us were expecting this and we sure weren't expecting the hellacious road we were headed down... I was hospitalized in May 2012 with Hyperemesis Gravidarum and I had lost over 40lbs in less than 20 days, my organs were failing, I was vomiting blood, I was hallucinating, and my parasite was fine... Yes, I was so angry with the whole situation and so exhausted and weak that I refused to call my child a baby... he was, in every sense of the word, a parasite. They put a PICC line in place to hydrate me and get anti emetics in my system and keep me alive and keep my child growing... The morning after I was released from the hospital, Áthila showed up at my door... unexpectedly. SURPRISE! I was too sick and too weak to be happy about this... but he nursed me back to health and took amazing care of me. We found out on May 22nd that we were expecting a little boy. We picked a name quickly after cutting out names like Thor and Balthazar and Octavious, we settled on Oliver. He returned to Brazil in July. I continued to improve and grew much less angry with my horrifying nightmare of a pregnancy and I was finally able to eat again and get in the car again... By mid-September, Áthila arrived and we welcomed Oliver into the world in October. His family flew here for a visit in December. The night before Christmas Eve, Oliver started having seizure like episodes and we rushed him to the hospital. After a week or so of test after test after test, they came back with absolutely nothing... Áthila's parents don't speak English at all and didn't understand anything that was happening, so they were stressed out... We were finally given a simple diagnosis of GERD and sent home... Oliver still continues to suffer from these episodes (though more rarely now). Áthila's family went home on New Years Eve and we said a heart wrenching "see-you-later" in February. On March 22nd he said we need to start filing for the fiancé visa... FINALLY!!!! I was prepared for this because he had been searching for a job to sponsor him the whole time we were together, with no luck... and I want so badly to be his wife, so I had started saving receipts and boarding passes and anything I could so I could have all of that evidence to pack our application with. We sent in our I-129F on April 2nd 2013... and now... here we are... playing the waiting game with the rest of you.

Our first meeting

Our second meeting

Hospital horror

Pregnancy horror

Our family

Edited April 21, 2013 by Mattos Family

[charlottelizabeth 11]

Sorry to hear about your crazy pregnancy, but it's great you are on your way to starting a new life together. My fiance and I also have an unplanned son (just turned 1 & the most perfect, amazing unplanned thing we have ever done!), my fiance got to stay with me throughout my whole pregnancy all the way up until our son was 9 months old.. Then had to return to the states (Jan 2013).. Unfortunately he missed his son's first birthday last weekend which was devastating for us.. All that consoles us is that we are only getting closer to our goal of getting married and being together again in California.. Definitely understand how hard it is being apart especially with little ones involved! Good luck on your journey, hopefully now CSC are getting their act together, you won't have to wait as long as us!

[John&Thatyana 8]

Good luck dear in your new journey!!

[Pitaya 2,577]

Welcome to the forum.

Good luck on your immigration journey.

[FlipgalRN 19]

Welcome to Visa Journey!

[PotatoFrittata 15]

Thanks for sharing! Good luck on your journey.

P.S. I love your son's name. Oliver. It's very pretty!

[jkelly07 120]

welcome good luck on your journey