(Filip)
On February 2021 I called Slovak embassy in New Delhi, the call took almost 30 minutes. The Slovak Mrs. was really good and explained me everything. What exactly is happening and the situation with covid restrictions, what were the choices and when will the embassy open again. She told me whole process and told: “The only one and the fastest way to be together is to get married in Slovakia.”. After the call I wrote everything down on paper to remember it and I was thinking: “So we need to get married. Well… I think I am sure with Migi. So I will ask her.”. I called Migi and told the situation. She was shocked and shy at the same time. But she agreed. ☺️ So we are going to get married in Slovakia and decided then to make second wedding in India after few years when things get better with covid. We were happy. 🥰 I told this to mom and she happily agreed. She was telling they will help me to prepare everything. First we needed to have marriage confirmation and date from government office. It was covid situation, everything were taking a lot longer time than normal. So getting shengen VISA (European) for Indian citizen will take months.

To understand how it works with visa and whole process, you can click here on this link.

So on March, I called slovak government office to know what I should do to make marriage. Honestly first time they didn’t took me seriously. Then with Migi we found third party company in Bengaluru (India) that was assisting with apostilles on documents. We send them original birth certificate first and wait for 15 days. We were full of energy again because we knew we can move forward and meet finally. We were making fun and thinking how it will be to get married. It is court marriage but still we were really nervous and excited at time. Later in March Migi was getting little bit sick but nothing serious. She was coughing so Migi’s parents and I was telling her all the time to go to doctor for check. Doctor did tests and told it is nothing serious and give some medicine. But one thing he mentioned: “You look like loosing weight. I would guess you could have tuberculosis.”. Migi didn’t took these words serious and didn’t told us either. She thought like: “Is this illness still exist ?” 🤭

On 1. April we got anniversary and Migi got very sad because we were not able to be together. So I was thinking like what I should do to make her happy. I found one company in Bengaluru, that is sending gifts and flowers on certain address. Because of covid many couples were separated so maybe they knew this business will work. So I ordered one teddy and heart shaped roses for Migi with small custom text. (On the photo) I didn’t text her too much on that day. when she got the surprise she was so shocked, first she thought, that her colleagues are pranking her or something. 🤭 Then she wrote me and she was so happy. She already got teddy with her during call and we were so laughing. She was asking me all the time: “How did you do this ?”. 😄

(Lakshmi)
I just came room after long day at work. There was unknown number calling me, I picked that call. Some random guy was telling me I got some flower as gift and needs to confirm my PG address. I was like “what?”. 🤔 First thought came in my mind was my colleague’s prank. I had already experiences from them so I thought its joke. After 15 minutes same number called and told me he is waiting near PG. I went down and he gave me heart shaped roses and small card. I was shocked. Its from Filip. wait but how? I felt running up and call Filip to anwser how he did… Then the person was like “He got still another thing for you..” and gave me Teddy 😮 I was so shocked, surprise and questions running inside mind. I called Filip and he was smiling and that was our anniversary gift. I was holding it everyday while sleeping. I loved it alot.

(Filip)
After making birth certificate apostilled we find out we need also affidavit. So we got little bit disappointed like why again like why so many documents we need. It was sometimes never-ending with these things. So Migi made affidavit with parents and send it to get apostilled again to this third-service. Again we waited 20 days. I honestly thought that it will take like one month for whole process. But it took almost 3 months to make just the marriage date. By the time they were making affidavit apostilled Migi were getting too much cough and tickling in throat. Parents told her to came home and I was also telling Migi to get tested for covid and visit doctor again. But Migi was not taking it seriously with her health condition. I was telling her so many times to go for check up because I love her and I wanted only good for her. So finally she travelled home and she was really exhausted. Whatever Migi was eating or drinking she was puking. I was really scared if she will not faint during travel.

In start of May 2021 she took test in her hometown and she got POSITIVE on covid test.. I got already bad feeling from it before. Family had to do test also and only father got positive. When they came home, Phurbu separated Migi and father in different rooms and was checking them regularly. Father got only small fever and got recovered really fast but Migi… Migi had really bad progress with covid. By the time Migi was lying on bed and getting cured, we got finished affidavit (Single status certificate – apostilled). So they send it back home to Migi. I was calling with Migi every single day as usual. We never had even one day without calling each other if I am not counting unusual events. Migi got headache, diarhea, vomit, weakness, fever, coughing… She was really suffering from covid. Even I used to think covid is sometimes too much overrated than other illnesses, But now I am thinking never to underestimate any illness ever again. 🥺

Next step was to send those apostilled documents to me from india. Migi got prepared all documents for DHL company and when she was about to send it on monday… Boooom! Lockdown happened again in Karnataka and DHL was not working exactly on the day we wanted to send it to me to make marriage date. With Migi we were like… We are never gonna make it. Migi was ill and lockdown stopped completely our plans again. We were trying to stay happy as much as possible ….. sometimes life can be really hard and challenging. We waited around one week and Migi found way to send it through another company to DHL and then to Slovakia. It costs around 4k rupees to send it safely to me and with the most fastest option. It arrived in less than a 4 days.

(Lakshmi)
I found the way to send the document to Filip with a little surprise on his birthday. I was making a surprise craft for Filip since November of last year…Just waiting for right time to send it and this was it. I send it with document and reached there right before his birthday.

(Filip)
When documents arrived to Slovakia I was slowly opening and seeing there is something additional. It was packed in really funny cover with Small Master Yoda. I couldn’t believe it when I opened it. It was hand made with every detail. When I was reading it I had tears in my eyes. Migi even wrote few sentences in Slovak language. Honestly my birthday was completely saved with this gift and I love it a lot. I am not having any parties or celebrations too much on my birthdays and thinking, that Migi is still ill was really hard. I went on bicycle to meditate little bit to one lake near home city and I call Migi to be with her on my birthday. 🥺

After a while, Migi was slowly getting better from covid. Documents arrived so I managed to jump right into government office where they were managing marriages. They told me to make documents translated and make some other smaller papers to finally make marriage date and confirmation.

In 2 weeks Migi was finally healthy but still have some small problems. She managed to recover from covid. But Migi’s mom was still scared about her because she had still cough. So she had like medium progress. Not too dangerous but also not too small to unnotice it. While making birth certificate and affidavit translation in Slovakia I went to jewellery shop to look on some rings for Migi for engagement. 🤭 Migi was sometimes too depressed from all that was happening. Still separated and facing such problems but she was still my girl and soulmate. This will never change. I was so sure with Lakshmi and happy to choose ring for her. This opportunity, to ask girl for engagement is once in whole life. ☺️

Thank god everything was going good till end of May. After covid was gone. Migi still got problem to recover fully. She was still coughing and had itching in throat and pain in chest and back. We thought we were out of woods but something horrible happened…. Migi got tuberculosis. 🥺 She got confirmation from one private hospital in India which was pretty good quality. In that moment I thought: “Is this real ? Seriously such disease right now when she is about to go to Slovakia ? No way…”. So Migi got a lot of medications from doctor. She needed to take around 6 pills per day. I was supporting her again, that time Migi used to cover almost all expenses in family together with Sunitha and Phurbu. But now they needed to take care of Migi and in India there are no recover programs for all tuberculosis patients like in Slovakia. There is no insurance or anything. So poor people in India who got such disease will hardly survive if they have serious progress. This is insane to know how expensive it can be for normal/regular people in India. 🥺 So we realized, that Migi’s Tibetan young doctor who looked up on Migi 2 months before was pretty right. Even when Migi underestimated his words. This is a big lesson for future.

Migi got one good personal doctor who checks her if she was healing properly during tuberculosis. At beginning they needed to take sample of water collected from Migi’s lungs. This was really painful for Migi and Phurbu told her before, that she will get anaesthesia even if she knew they will not give. Needle was called cow’s needle because it was huge. I really felt so bad for Lakshmi. She had to go through so much pain right after covid. 😥 And this was the worst. First weeks were the worse. First month of June 2021 was extreme bad. Migi couldn’t even sleep during nights. Her lungs were paining a lot. She was not able to eat properly because it was painful. She needed to eat painkiller tablets, that were really bad for kidney. So she used to eat only half of tablet when pain was really bad. I was supporting Migi every single day from start and I am still with her and will be forever. One whole week she was not able call with me because she was not able to talk properly. 😥 We used to call every single day before tuberculosis. That’s why I felt like it is the end and my mom used to support me, that it will be good and she will get cured. That week was the worse in my whole life. Literally crying every day unable to work as usual or do anything. It is like life didn’t make sense to me for one week completely. I almost lose my only girl whom I truly loved in my whole life and for whom I already got beautiful engagement ring. I was loosing my business that time also and everything was going in bad direction. I remember those days just lying on bed with tears in my eyes looking at ceiling, thinking if this is really happening. But even being such sad from reality I was every moment supportive & positive for my love. 🥺💙

You now can understand the title of this section. This was not about our relationship or argue. This was more worse than normal couple’s problems. You can’t imagine how painful it is to see your loved one person suffer so much in pain, trust me there is no worse pain in life than this, not even pain of being poor. And if you can imagine such pain or you already came through something like this, trust me I can understand you… There was not a single day without tears in my eyes during the worst peak of tuberculosis illness with Migi. Count also the pain of not being able to hug the person or touch the person you love.

In end of July 2021 Migi got slowly relief from pain. Every single day with such pain like Migi had was day full of stress and tension. I used to go regularly to fitness so as to turn off my mind and eat healthy and be really strong with mind & body. I didn’t meet other people so much honestly. I didn’t have much days off. I just felt like I need to do something to make me healthy for Migi and also I have to mention the hard work we had on our family cottage all the time. We built fences around the cottage area this summer with father and we did also many other things. It was good to be focused on something without too much thinking about bad things. I was also learning how to drive car more often. Even I was trying cooking Indian food, but the best is when Migi could help me with this, because the original taste I can’t remember from the start (You can see Thukpa on photo). Migi is my motivation in every way. We told to each other: “If we will be able to get to each other even through such things like covid or tuberculosis and during restrictions. It will be miracle.”. And truly it is. While writing this post we already got to each other. ☺️ Migi still had to do so many things to finally make it safely to Slovakia.

When Migi was slowly getting better, we managed to choose rings for our wedding and make next steps. Choosing rings was little bit harder but we made our choice. I went again to government office to make marriage date and they approved it. Migi was able to walk and everything slowly. So we asked the embassy to give us the date for bringing all documents & interview in New Delhi. They gave us end of August 2021. The person on embassy already knew our story and they were really good. They helped us with everything. So we prepared everything also flight tickets for family and we waited till end of August. Booked Hotel, papers, affidavit from my mom to confirm Migi will stay in our apartment, bank balance and many other papers we prepared. Around 20 paper Migi needed to take to embassy. I was so happy, that we (me and phurbu’s help) gave opportunity for parents to fly for first time in their life. They were really happy and thanking us. At least something good after so stressing times. When Migi was traveling with family she still got vomiting sensations from tuberculosis medication. We made 2 months reserve in case if Migi’s condition would become worse. So two months from end of August 2021 till November 1 on which Migi got flight to Europe and also on that date she got start of VISA type C (Visiting family – marriage).

When Migi arrived in Delhi with her family, taxi driver told them, that hotel we booked is not in decent place. Not even taxis are driving there usually. At first time I thought, that driver wants to scam them. But when they arrived we all understood something is not right. Place absolutely didn’t look like the hotel we ordered in pictures. Some people there were telling it is area of immigrants from Afghanistan. Family was scared to stay there. I started searching other hotels near embassy but Phurbu quickly found one good hotel, so they slowly started moving there in tuk-tuk. They refunded money from the previous one. I was shocked how it is possible when we ordered good reviewed hotel which turned out to be the bad one. I really advise you if you ever go to India, do not order hotel from OYO websites. Rather go to booking.com and see at least 100 reviews for hotels because in Bengaluru I didn’t had any problem with that hotel. They were really good quality in India. So when family came to new hotel it was pretty good finally. So they finally could get good sleep safely in Delhi after the flight. There were no restrictions in airport that time. No lockdown or anything so luckily they could get easily through everything.

Next morning they went to embassy. Migi had an interview at 9 am on 25th of August 2021. She was really stressed. One person at embassy already know us for many months. So they told us if there will be no problem with servers, they can make VISA within 24 hours. Migi with family came to Delhi only for 4 days because of Sunitha’s job. Migi went in embassy. When she go inside interview room, she saw a big white person and a white lady behind the glass. It was the person whom we have been communicating for months. Migi passed them all documents and here it started, the questions they were asking her. How did you met each other, why you want to go to Slovakia, why Filip is not coming here in India, how parents took it when I was staying in India… and many other questions. Migi is good and honest girl so she answered all the questions without hesitating. The funny thing was when they asked: “How did you meet each other ?”, Migi answer: “On internet and Filip came to visit me but was stuck with me and my family in India during lockdown so we get to know each other.” 😄😄 they were laughing behind the glass. Life is so unexpected thing. They accepted Migi and told her she will get VISA tomorrow or in worst case one week it may take. Migi was little bit scared because she got flight after 2 days. So they told her they will try to make it as soon as possible. Interview took aroud 2 hours. When they left embassy Migi went to bank for payment for visa with Phurbu.

Next morning I wake up little bit late. I took mobile and saw 10 messages from Migi. First messages were like “Oh I am scared we will not make it, they will not give that VISA I have feel.”. Then there was one message in the middle – she sent me photo full VISA type C in her passport. And last messages were like: “Yasss we got it, I am so happy. They gave everything.” 😁 I was like “ahhh this girl. First sad, then photo, then happy”. 😁😁 It looked so funny. I love her so much. 🥰

After few days they came back home from Delhi without any problem. And we had to wait from September till November. I can tell you, these two months were so long. The longest months in our lives. Especially September 2021. We counted every single day. Migi was always teasing me how many days are still remaining. I was like: “Don’t worry you will see snow.”, and she was telling: “Filip… still 46 days remaining… they can cancel the flight.” 😄 At home in Slovakia, we needed to start buying clothes for winter to prepare Migi for colder temperatures. Even my mom was so happy, that Migi will come, she also started buying some clothes to surprise her. I was thinking about everything, every detail from shoes to cap and gloves. Who knows if she will not be freezing right ? From embassy they also told us: “Be happy and confident about flying only a week before the flight, because there is possibilities of getting flight cancelled before anytime, anything can happen.”. After everything we came through, we were more patient. Migi used to loose hope on getting to each other. Who would not with such illnesses and pain. But we learnt one thing in life. No matter how stressful the situation is, we need to believe everything bad is for something good and we have some higher purpose on this earth. Every lesson in life is to make us better human beings. Try to look at your life, the hard times you came through and see how better you are right now. 🙃

In the end, everything is always good. 🙏