Filipina Girl Who Received Christmas Box from American Kid, Marries Him 14 Years Later

Have you heard of the Samaritan’s Purse? It is a box of goodies filled with kids in America to give to less fortunate kids in countries such as the Philippines. One of these boxes covered the way to a love story that would resemble a plot from a movie…

It all started in year 2000 when a young Tyrel Wolfe from Idaho loaded a box for the Samaritan’s Purse with some goodies. He also put a photo of himself with his name and address at the back.

This special box made it to the Philippines where it was received by a young Joana.

Sometime later, Joana Marchan tried to send Tyrel a letter to thank him for the box but it did not reach him for strange reasons. Maybe it was lost along the way as snail mails sometimes do?

After many years, a grown-up Joana searched for Tyrel on Facebook – and found him! But he ignored her friend request for months. He eventually accepted it and the two became friends.

But what began as a chat between chance acquaintances would bloom into a friendship that would later grow into romance. Tyrel decided to visit the Philippines and it was then that the two would truly fall in love.

Joana told that when they met, she cried because she was overcome by an ‘amazing feeling’ when she finally saw his face in person.

But they don’t think about their love story as just another pen pal story of two people who met on social media. Tyrel believes that it was destiny, that God made Joana find a way for them to connect because they were destined to be together.