Ethan & Kie

It all started in May 2020. Through a series of serendipitous events, we came into each other’s lives – forever changing us for the better. From the beginning, distance has challenged us, but we never let it stop us. Initially, Kie was in California, and I was in Arizona. After numerous daily calls that lasted on average 2-4 hours, we knew that we had to meet in person – well, I think we both knew this even after the first call. It just took a few days for us to accept it.

On a perfect Monday, May 18th, we met in Phoenix, Arizona, for our first date, a date that lasted all week. It was a date filled with love, connection, laughter, and the finding of a soulmate, which, while it took us some time to realize, eventually lead to a clarity and purpose neither of us had ever experienced.

The date lasted from Phoenix to Sedona. During the time, we found something a part of us had always been looking for but never truly expected to find. And the universe wasn’t going to let it pass us by. Through further chance or serendipitous occurrences, we decided to move in together the following week. We spent the most memorable and magical couple of weeks living together until Kie had to return to Japan.

I won’t lie and say that everything was perfect. With everything moving so quickly and with such powerful feelings and connections, we both had to face some challenges. There was a moment during the second week of June that I realized how amazing Kie was and that I loved her with all my heart and soul. It scared both of us. We didn’t know what the future held, and at that point, or really what we wanted from each other.

A few weeks later, on June 28th, I had to drive Kie back to LA. We stopped in San Diego to spend an hour on the beach while enjoying a perfect beach view and the waves’ smell and power covering us. Kie told me that she loved me for the first time. The next day was one of the first of many of the most challenging days of our lives as I had to leave her in LA to fly back to Japan – unsure of when we would ever see each other again. As I drove away, I found out that we both felt the same, and we both mourned a loss we had yet to admit or accept fully.

It’s amazing how sometimes in life, things happen so quickly and smoothly that it seems like it isn’t even real. Like it was too good to be true. Fortunately, this is one of those stories where eventually we got to write our happy endings.

Over the next seven months, through our choices, decisions, and the blessings of the universe, we both had to walk paths that, although they separated in a way, brought us closer together.

We went from talking twice a day to not speaking for months. I took a deep dive on my path of healing. It took me through the eye of the storm of my wounds, my past, to bring me the clarity that I knew beyond a doubt that Kie was my soulmate, and that whether or not we spoke, our hearts were one, and that one day we would be together again. Kie also walked her path, starting a new job, and beginning her path of healing. Little by little, she challenged the walls and the boundaries of her reality to listen to her heart and eventually face and overcome all of her fears to accept her heart’s truth and come back to me.

During this time, I created Legendary Phoenix, a coaching business to help people find healing, love, and purpose. Pivotal to Legendary Phoenix was a Guide to Healing Wounds. I wrote it inspired by Kie. Over the months I was writing it, I often wondered, and I could only pray that she would see it one day. But as I mentioned, the universe has had a plan for us the whole time.

I finished the first draft of the Guide on Saturday, December 5th, 2020. And after several months of silence, Kie reached out to me the next day. We started chatting and rekindling. As the momentum and clarity grew, we both accepted and knew we wanted to be together and that we had to see each other again. Over the next month, we talked and talked and eventually decided that Kie would come out to America for a few months to visit, and then we could see what we wanted to do for the next steps.

On Thursday, January 21st, Kie had quit her job and flew out to America to rekindle our love and see each other again after seven months. However, even after all the struggles and challenges, we were given another. Immigration in Hawaii decided that since for her visit she was seeing her boyfriend, that was unacceptable.

Now for some people, something like this would forever turn them off, and they might shut down. But for Kie, it only gave her more clarity and resolution that she wanted to be with me. Over the months we were apart, I had already found this clarity. So this was both a blessing and a nightmare to go through.

Being so close to seeing each other, we decided that we didn’t ever want to be powerless again to be together. We decided that we would be together for my birthday and that the next steps were to meet in Cancun and get married.

So Kie flew 30+ hours around the world to meet me and bless me with the most wonderful birthday, and a few days later, on the most magic and wonderful beach in Cancun, we were able to commit and promise each other to spend the rest of our lives together.

On February 10th, 2021, we got to marry our soulmates and begin our lives together. We will be spending the next several months in Cancun, Brasil, and eventually Japan until we can legally return to America as husband and wife.

We wish logistics and the world would have allowed us to share this special time with you, our friends, and family, but challenging times required us to make this journey. And we couldn’t be happier being together again, and we will look forward to reconnecting with you all when we are back in the states. Please find photos of both our wedding day and our extended honeymoon.

Thank you for all the love, support, and well wishes.

Love,
Ethan & Kie Fialkow