Congratulations! And I mean that most wholeheartedly!
I have a friend who is seriously looking at meeting and perhaps marrying a woman from the former soviet union who asked for My advice in this matter. At first I was reluctant to participate in any manner, but he finally convinced Me to at least examine the situation and perphaps provide another perspective. In short, do not believe all the hype. Although gold-diggers and scammers do exist, if you approach it in a realistic manner your chances of being duped are quite slim. He is using several methods of insuring that the women he finds of interest are truly what they claim, including using agencies that personally screen each prospective candidate and verify that they are who they claim to be -including valid ID's, verifying job and position by actual visits, and representatives personally visiting her claimed residence to substantiate it.
They also personally screen the women prior to acceptance, and keep an eye on all correspondence to prohibit 'form-letter' generating women, and some who attempt to send untrue information or attempt to request financial support. They immediately discharge those who do so, and pull their profiles from their website and inform the individual(s) she was in contact with of the occurance. There is even a 'Black List' of such individuals available to help insure that others are aware of her true intent.
I must admit, even being on the sidelines on this, there are some amazingly sweet, attractive, and feminine ladies looking for someone to love.
For those of you who sneer at someone who you might feel had no choice but to 'stoop' to seeking their prospective mate overseas, let Me assure you that the women assure Me that he has had several offers, and tell Me he is considered "REAL good-lookin' " and "handsome" -and yes, those are direct quotes, so you would think that he would have no problem with finding someone closer to home. I happen to agree with him, however, that most american women... how shall I put it delicately... have adhered to such an arrogant and inflated opinion of themselves that foreign national women are quite a cut above them.
Go ahead, flame Me you who feel that anything other than an american woman is contemptable. You would not be the first, but I stand by My opinion. I, as well as My friend, personally would PREFER an american woman, but finding an acceptable one is quite difficult. All you posters who claim that there are so many available attractive, unattatched, conservative, and bloody well FEMININE ladies about simply begging for a decent man, well, he and I have no idea where you've hidden them.
ROFL! Did you think the posters would share? I have no idea where the wonderful women have been hidden, either!
Good luck on your adventure and hope it works out that you are married for fifty years or more. Don't worry about what others think especially people that are your friends on the internet but not your real world friends. I married an American and very happy for the last ten years (April is 10 years) I did not marry as young as most on FREEPERS. I was almost 27. But if I did not meet her and couldn't find anyone that I wanted in America, I could see myself marrying someone else especially since I traveled throughout Asia, Austrailia, and Europe so it would be possible. Anyway, good luck to you.