Help With Craig and Frieda's Honeymoon and Family Vacation

Our Big Adventure

Hello! This is Craig and I am humbly asking for your consideration in donating a wedding gift of money towards the honeymoon that my Namibian beauty, Frieda, and I have been planning on for years now. Unfortunately, inflation is proving to be a real problem for those plans. The two thousand dollars would go towards the cost of renting a 4x4 truck that is needed to travel in Namibia, since most of the roads are unpaved, and many of them are very rough going.

Frieda’s ten-year-old daughter, Michell, will also be joining us for our planned honeymoon vacation. It’s very important to us that she gets to see more of her own country, including seeing the famous animals such as zebras and rhinos, so that she can have those memories to keep when they come to live with me here in the United States.

I first met Frieda back in 2019, when I went on a vacation to Namibia in Africa to fulfill my lifelong dream of going on an African safari. It was the greatest experience of my life – but not in the way that I had expected. Seeing lions, rhinos and elephants out in the wild was super cool. And the countryside of Namibia was spectacular. But all of that was nothing compared to meeting the love of my life, my Cheetah Girl, Frieda.

At one of the towns that we stopped in my driver decided to ask out the receptionist at our hotel. As a tour driver, he often would stop at the same places, so he’d has his eye on her for awhile. He asked if she might have a friend who could be my date for the evening, so that I wouldn’t be stuck sitting around bored in my room. Enter: Frieda. While we were waiting in the car for the girls, I saw this stunning lady out going for a walk in the evening. It was a complete shock when that same beauty got into our car, along with her friend (the hotel receptionist). I just couldn’t believe that she was my date for the evening!

Frieda and I had instant chemistry. My friend and the girl that he’d had the hots for? They didn’t fare so well. At all. When all four of us got together again for lunch the next day it was... awkward.

I didn’t meet Frieda until near the very end of my vacation, so we didn’t have much time together. We became friends on social media and when I got back home we would chat for a few hours every day. It didn’t take long for us to get to know each other even better. And the more that I came to know Frieda, the more that I came to love her.

Through text and video chats we built up our relationship right when the whole rest of the world was being turned upside down by the covid pandemic. Even if I’d had the funds in place, it wasn’t possible for me to visit her again until two years later.

On my second visit to Namibia we did a road trip vacation together. Her country is about the size of Texas – big enough that we spent hours driving from one place to another. The time that we spent cooped up in that hot car together only made our relationship stronger. Along the way we did a stop so that I could meet her parents. They didn't speak any English, so it was pretty awkward. It was even more so when her daddy asked me what my intentions were towards his daughter. We had already decided that we were going to get married, but I was still caught off guard. I made the faux pas of awkwardly proposing to Frieda. The correct answer, of course, was asking for her daddy’s permission to marry Frieda. Oops!! Despite that, he decided that I was ok, and I got his blessing.

Unfortunately, our next attempt to be together failed. She applied for a visa to come visit me the next summer here in the United States, but it was denied. It’s not too easy for people from Third World countries to legally visit the United States.

The delay gave me a chance to save up enough to visit her again the following year. We rented an apartment to spend some time together as a family. This time I got a chance to get to know her daughter, Michell. We became immediate friends. We just did normal day to day type of things like going grocery shopping and spending quiet evenings together just watching tv. One of the highlights of that visit for me was the drive to go pick up Michell after school was out. She was always so happy to see us. I had brought with me a notebook and I was touched to find that Michell had written “I love my family” on one of the pages. Me too, kiddo, me too.

Now the time is getting near for me to visit my girls again. It has been truly horrible spending all of this time apart. I simply try not to dwell on it as much as possible.

This time we are going to be married. I want our little family to be together for the rest of my days. Getting married will allow Frieda and Michell to apply for green cards so that they can live with me here in the United States.

Unfortunately, inflation is proving to be a big problem -- not just here in the States, but in her country as well. Just the air fare alone has gone up by $800. A pretty significant sum if you don’t make a whole lot of money. Everything else will be more expensive as well.

I have been going over the numbers, and as much as I hate to do so, I am reaching out for help. Though we are doing just a simple court wedding, we are also planning to do a honeymoon vacation as a family. It is very important to me that Michell gets a chance to see the famous animals of her own country (no, elephants and zebras don’t live anywhere close to her hometown) as well as other sites of interest in Namibia. Once she has moved here I don’t ever want her to overhear someone talking about their vacation in Africa where they experienced things that she never had the chance to experience, even though it’s where she lived for much of her life.

I am asking for a wedding gift to help us have that nice honeymoon vacation where we can make memories that we will treasure for the rest of our lives. Any amount that you can give would greatly help. If you can’t afford to donate, rest assured that I completely understand. I’ve had to watch people I greatly care about post fundraisers that I simply couldn’t afford to donate towards. Like I said, I understand. Thank-you for the consideration and taking the time to read this.