Long-distance love affair: How a shoebox led a Pinay to her future hubby

In 2000, Joana, then a young girl living in Quezon City, received a gift shoebox from North Carolina containing, among others, a photo of a little American boy in a cowboy shirt. Fourteen years later, she married that boy.

Sometime in 2011, a man from Midvale, Idaho, checked his Facebook account and wondered at the friend request he got from “a random girl in the Philippines.” That was of course Joana, his would-be wife.

“I still wanted to thank the person who gave me the box that had meant so much to me,” said Joana in an article on Good News Network, on why she decided to search for Tyrel Wolfe, the young boy who sent her the shoebox in 2000, through social media.

The shoebox was part of Operation Christmas Child by the Christian organization Samaritan's Purse.

According to the group's website, each box contains “a variety of gifts that will bring delight to a child” such as toys, school supplies and non-liquid hygiene items.

Joana wrote Tyrel a letter thanking him for the shoebox, which she received at a vacation bible school, but the letter never reached the young boy.

After reconnecting on Facebook, the two began an extraordinary friendship – bonding over music (they both sing and play instruments) and love for a quiet life in the country.

Letters and pictures were also sent, and Facebook was checked regularly for messages. They communicated as if there was no 15-hour time difference between them.

Then, in June last year, they finally met in person.

“Once I saw his face, an amazing feeling came over me,” said Joana on meeting Tyrel, who made the meeting possible by flying to the Philippines. “I was so happy I cried.”

A first-time visitor to the Philippines, Tyrel stayed for 10 days, during which he got to know Joana's home environs and even met her father. It was during this visit that Tyrel decided that Joana was “the one.”

Back in the States, Tyrel worked harder to save enough money to go back to the Philippines, the Good News Network article said. During his second Philippine visit, he stayed for a full month.

It was during this visit that he formally asked Joana's dad for permission to marry his daughter, the “random girl in the Philippines” who received his shoebox gift more than a decade ago.

The father gave his blessing, and last Oct. 5, after obtaining a fiancée visa for Joana, the two tied the knot in an outdoor ceremony on Tyrel’s parents’ 400-acre cattle ranch. — Karl B. Kaufman/JDS, GMA News

Thumbnail photo also from Tyler and Joana Wolfe's Facebook account