brand spankin' newbie here

[artbyc]

This is my first time doing anything like this, but here it goes.
I'm 38, divorced and raising 4 kids on my own. I am African-American, average build and weight, and I have always had an attraction to Latina women. I am financially stable (not rich by any means), working full time and after 4 years with just me and the kids I'm getting the itch to settle down again.
I'm definitely not looking to jump in , spend all my money and get married right away, but i want to meet some interesting Latinas.
Ive browsed some of the forums and read (and reread) the "avoiding scams".
I guess I just want to meet that special lady no matter how many I have to go through to meet her.
Thats all for now.

[Jeff_2]

Welcome to the board.  You'll find this place, and international relationships in general, to not be for the faint of heart.   

Good luck!

[Jeff S]

Hey Art. Happy to have you.

[singlefather no more]

Art,

Welcome to the Forum and ask any question you like in the general discussion of the Latin Forum.. You will find a lot of posters from the Asian side posting in both forums also and they have a lot of good advice as well that will be useful to you..

All the best,

singlefather

..

[artbyc]

Thanks singlefather...will do.

C

[dennislevy]

Art:

Good luck.

If you want to ask specific questions, there are a lot of posters who have experience in traveling to South America.

Let me recommend that you go to.....................Latin America and/or South America. You very well may have a life altering experience.

dennislevy

[lswote]

Welcome Art, my name is Bruce.  Thanks for your introduction.

I have a Colombian wife and have been married about 5 1/2 years and we have a 4 1/2  year old son together.

Without any disrespect meant to you in regards to assuming anything about your financial situation or what you might already know about the cost of getting a foreign wife, I thought I would touch on the costs you can expect with a foreign wife. You said 

I'm 38, divorced and raising 4 kids on my own. I am African-American, average build and weight, and I have always had an attraction to Latina women. I am financially stable (not rich by any means), working full time and after 4 years with just me and the kids I'm getting the itch to settle down again.
I'm definitely not looking to jump in , spend all my money and get married right away, but i want to meet some interesting Latinas.

 
Since you have a family of four kids to think about, I am sure money is going to be a big consideration for you.  This forum isn't exclusively for foreign brides living in their native countries.  Many foreign-born Latinas live in the United States and Europe, and I will touch on them a bit before I finish this post, but if you are thinking of looking for a wife by going to their country, I will give you an example of the costs I incurred with my Colombian wife.

I met my wife in Bogotá in 2002.  I met her at an introduction agency and started dating her on my second trip.  I live near Miami so I was able to visit her every other weekend, so we got on a pretty fast track to marriage.  We were engaged within six weeks and married within six months.  In total I made twelve trips to Colombia by the time we got married.  I also paid for the wedding completely, including her dress and a one week honeymoon in San Andrés/Providencia, Colombia.  Altogether I spent $20,000.  I think the wedding was about $3000 and I don’t remember the cost of the honeymoon, but it wasn’t too expensive, maybe $1500.   So I guess roughly I spent $15,500 on agency costs, airfare, and hotels.  Now most of the other guys here who have Latin wives will tell you I got off cheap.  I have friends who have spent several times that amount, and aren’t even married yet.

Now you can meet foreign born Latinas outside Latin America.  Where I live near Miami there are tons of them, and many of them do look to online social networking/romance sites to meet American/European men (and other countries as well, but USA/Europe seems to be the largest majority of posters on this board) so there are online places you can try to meet these “local” Latinas.  But if you do consider a Latina in the US or Europe, make sure they are a foreign-born Latina or you are just dealing with another American/European woman.  Those women will probably retain some of their Latin culture but they are more American/European, than Latin. While there are a few disadvantages to marrying someone outside your culture, the advantage is they are less critical of appearance and easier to get along with than American/European women. In my wife’s case the biggest disadvantage has been the gray view of the law she has.  About a year ago she sideswiped a car while backing out of a parking spot and didn’t leave a note or try to find the owner because she didn’t want to report the accident to insurance since she already had three accidents before.  Also when I had my own business a few years ago, she got angry when I wouldn’t hire undocumented employees because she said they would have been cheaper.

[raycjs]

Welcome and i wish you the best of luck


Ray