Love makes the world go 'round

By Monica Fleming
Staff Reporter

	Coastal Point • SUBMITTED Ingrid Suvertova and Brent Poffenberger recently got engaged.

Rosi and Shaun

Living in Bulgaria, Ruslana “Rosi” Stoykova, wasn’t even looking forward to coming to the U.S. in her second year of university.

“I didn’t want to come — my mom made me,” she recalled.

Shaun Lambert — a transplant from Alaska and a true Alaskan native, in the ethnic sense — ended up in Delaware after his mother married a man who originally came from Dover. His mother has since left the state and headed back to Alaska, “and left me stranded here!” complained Shaun with a laugh.

It was only a twist of fate that Rosi and Shaun met one summer. Rosi and two other students from Bulgaria arrived late one night to Delaware set to take the ferry to New Jersey where a job awaited them — or so they thought.

“We called the job to tell them that we arrived, and the person didn’t know what we were talking about. They said no such job existed,” she explained.

After picking themselves up from that news, the international visitors decided they needed a place to sleep and landed at a hotel in Rehoboth Beach, where Shaun Lambert worked. It wasn’t until the next day or so that they met, and, according to Shaun, their connection was something immediate.

“I managed a house in exchange for a discount on room and board, and I was very happy to learn she was going to be staying there,” he said.

After plenty of meet-and-greets, where the staff would meet the new students who came in the house every few weeks or so and have drinks, Rosi and Shaun finally went out alone together. She went along with Shaun to a friend’s house to play some pool, although that was news to Rosi.

“I thought he meant it had a pool, so I had packed some swimsuits in my purse, that’s how good my English was then!”

Rosi returned to Bulgaria in October of that year, after her planned four months in the U.S. were up, and they decided they would “see what happens” with their relationship. But both had developed strong feelings by then.

“We wanted to try to do something,” said Shaun.

After starting work at the newly formed Coastal Point newspaper, Shaun was still talking with Rosi, so she filled out the paperwork and applied for an internship at the paper in the field she had always wanted to pursue — photography. She came back in April 2004 for what was supposed to be six months. Instead, they married and now she is in the process of obtaining her permanent visa.

Asked if she ever thought she would be married so young, Rosi Lambert laughed, shaking her head “no.”

“I never was fascinated by marriage,” she said.

Although her family was not present for their wedding ceremony, in the summer of 2007 her mother, father and brother came for a visit to America and got to see many attractions of the U.S.’s Eastern seaboard — Niagra Falls, New York City, Atlantic City — as well as to finally meet their son-in-law of three years, Shaun.

As for what the future holds, the couple know they don’t want kids just yet but do plan on traveling, and maybe moving to someplace “exotic.”

According to the U.S. Embassy’s Web site, the Summer Work and Travel Program — the four-month program that allows foreign students to come and earn money, and experience American culture — is gaining popularity.

According to Ambassador John Beyrle, “The Summer Work and Travel Program has become tremendously popular in Bulgaria. We expect to give Bulgarian students about 13,000 visas in 2008.”

Bulgaria is a country in Southeast Europe on the Black Sea bordered by Romania, Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Greece and Turkey. After Communist rule came to an end in 1989, a new constitution for the nation was established in 1991.

Ingrid and Brent

Ingrid Suvertova, originally from Slovakia, had been in the country for a while before meeting Brent Poffenberger, owner of the Cottage Café restaurant near Bethany Beach.

“We actually met at the restaurant,” said Brent. “Her main job is in marketing, so working here was a part-time job, and after a little while I asked her out.”

Ingrid came to the United States as a college graduate in her mid-20s, after her brother, who had come to the U.S. before her.

“I don’t think I would do it,” said Poffenberger, of persuading his fiancée to come to America. “She’s a strong independent woman. She speaks, Slavik, Russian, English, French.”

The two are now planning a summer wedding and hope to start a family after that. This spring they visited with Ingrid’s family, as they plan to do each year or every other year, and her family will make their first trip to the United States for the wedding.

“If you asked me 10 years ago if I thought I’d be marrying someone from another country, I’d have to say I wouldn’t have. But I love her to death and appreciate that she’s willing to make the sacrifice to live here permanently because she’s extremely close with her family,” added Poffenberger.

Slovakia, or the Slovak Republic is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Hungary and Austria. Slovakia succeeded from the Czecho-Slovak Federation, previously Czechoslovakia, on Jan. 1, 1993.

Marcela and Edward

Walking home one cold night from G&E to the Salt Pond changed Marcela (Lema) Towle’s life forever.

“It was so cold,” she remembered. “A man pulled over because he saw me walking with my groceries and hood up, and asked if I needed a ride. He thought I was a young boy because I am so little.”

	Coastal Point • MONICA FLEMING Edward and Marcela Towle, with their daughter, Sarah.