An American woman who spent eight years trying to make it as an actress in Hollywood didn’t anticipate that, one day, her own love story would resemble a Hallmark movie—getting married to her soulmate, moving to a foreign country to raise two children, and living life as a blended family.
“Love is worth the risk,” Cheyanne Lent Cleyman, 34, told The Epoch Times. “You won’t know unless you try and take that leap of faith.”
‘Adventure of a Lifetime’
In 2011, after graduating from college, Cheyanne made the decision to move to Los Angeles from Florida to pursue a career in acting. She then spent the next few years making memories and mistakes. However, after years of living the life of a struggling artist, trying to make her “big break,” Cheyanne found herself deep in financial debt.After going back and forth and feeling like a failure, she decided to move into her parents’ home in San Diego so that she could pay off her debts. Despite her fizzled entertainment career and her looming financial deficit, Cheyanne’s hopes had not been quenched.
Six months later, she was back on her feet financially and was invited to attend her high-school friend Aline’s wedding in Belgium. It had been 11 years since Cheyanne had met Aline, who she'd befriended in French class in Florida.
“YES, Europe! The catch was… I’d be coming as a total surprise to her!” Cheyanne recalled. She accepted the invitation from Aline’s then-fiance, thinking, if it had been just a few months earlier, she'd have said no, since she wouldn’t have been able to afford the trip.
“As a 30-year-old woman who wasn’t exactly where she wanted to be in life professionally or personally, I wanted to give this gift to myself," Cheyanne said.
Little did she know, it was the beginning of her storybook romance.
When the wedding came in September, Cheyanne “was so excited to take on this adventure of a lifetime.”
On Sept. 8, 2018, the morning of Aline’s wedding day, Cheyanne surprised Aline with a card leading her to the front door, where she found her standing. The two friends were left speechless upon seeing each other after so many years. Then, after the wedding ceremony that evening, Cheyanne attended the wedding reception at a nearby castle in the Netherlands.
“I was thinking, ‘Wow, does every European party like this?’” she said. Feeling like the protagonist in a Hallmark movie, Cheyanne checked in at the castle and met the others in the grand foyer for cocktails before dinner.
It was here where Cheyanne laid her eyes on her future husband, Kim, for the first time. Recalling the moment, she explained how her heart stopped.
“There he was… the most handsome man I’d ever laid eyes on in my entire life. I instantly elbowed the bride and said, ‘Wow, you certainly have friends in high places. You have Thor at your wedding!’ Because this amazing hunk of a man had long, curly blond hair, a strong build, and green eyes,” Cheyanne said.
She knew right then that she wanted to talk to him, and finally summoned up the courage to do it.
Ever since she was a preteen, she'd struggled with obesity and an unhealthy self-image, but at that moment, she was on the other side of her personal-health triumphs, both inside and out. She felt she had the courage to go after the man she wanted, and this was him.
After an introduction, Cheyanne and Kim hit it off; as they talked, she had butterflies in her stomach. Then, during the evening of dancing and celebrating, the two found each other time and again and got lost in conversation and laughter. The party lasted until dawn, when Kim walked Cheyanne to her door and they shared their first kiss.
The next day, after returning to their respective rooms for a short two hours of sleep, guests met the bride and groom for breakfast and a walk through the countryside. Cheyanne’s eyes roved for Kim and she wondered if the evening had been an illusion caused by the wedding celebration.
But Cheyanne told The Epoch Times that, to her glee, “it was even better the next day.” The two got lost in conversation again as they walked through the countryside.
Kim then got Cheyanne’s number from Aline, and they continued what they started off at the castle.
After communicating through texts, Kim and Cheyanne planned to meet for a lunch date in Gent, the day before she was supposed to fly back home.
That day, when Cheyanne dressed for her date, she didn’t just put on “any” dress—it was a dress she had purchased two years prior. She revealed that, when she bought it, she felt like God had told her that she would wear that dress on her first date with her husband. So, she had hung the dress on the back of her door and, for two years, she prayed for the man she would wear the dress with.
Unaware at that time of what would unfold with Kim, Cheyanne packed her special dress among her things for Belgium. “I knew in my soul I was supposed to,” she said.
That afternoon, after kayaking down the canals of Gent, she changed into her special dress. “Knowing the significance of it and ‘knowing’ how crazy it would be that Kim, some European single dad I met at a friend’s wedding, was my husband? But, I moved forward in faith and rocked that dress at our date,” Cheyanne reflected.
Next Stop: The Wedding
After Cheyanne’s return to California, she and Kim communicated often by phone. Cheyanne then moved to New York for three months to care for her elderly grandmother, and at the same time was able to dedicate herself to a long-distance relationship with Kim, despite the six-hour time difference. Bypassing the extraneous in dating, the couple had only phones to interact with and spent hours talking in depth.“We would share our deepest desires, life’s big challenges, and even read to each other through the phone,“ Cheyanne said. ”We also would FaceTime when cooking or even working out together.”
Soon, their fondness for each other had grown so profound that marriage was the only next step.
“We both knew...we were the one each other had been waiting and praying for,“ Cheyanne said. ”After just knowing each other for only six weeks, with the blessing of both sets of parents, we decided to start planning our wedding.”
Just three months after they first met, Kim flew to the United States where he met Cheyanne in New York. The couple then traveled together by road across the country, stopping at baseball stadiums and seeing sights along their four-day trip to California.
On Dec. 30, 2018, they stopped in a small chapel in Las Vegas and were married – and “nope, that is NOT a typo!” Cheyenne said.
New Responsibilities
The couple knew they would plant their roots in Belgium, since Kim already had a young daughter, Billie.About seven weeks after the wedding, Cheyanne immigrated and reunited with her new family in Belgium. Her life looked entirely remodeled as she was now living in a foreign country with a completely different set of roles: as a new wife and stepmom to a daughter who didn’t speak the same language. However, Cheyanne was up to the challenge and ready for the adventure.
“It was a lot of change to experience in such a short amount of time, as just six months before, I was a single woman living at home with my parents in California,“ she said. ”I’ve always been someone, led by my faith, to believe that things happen for us, not to us, so I went into my new adventure and met all the challenges with that same mentality.”
Five months after they were married, the couple learned that they would soon be welcoming their first child together.
Mason Brave was born on March 29, 2020, just two weeks into the first lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Billie, who had never wanted any siblings, soon warmed up to Mason. As the preteen spent more time with the Cleymans—especially when much of school was online—Kim and Cheyanne witnessed Billie transform into a “kind, patient, and responsible sibling.”
Over this time, Cheyanne noticed that the bond between the siblings grew stronger.
“Mason’s entire body lights up when he sees her, and they have this intangible bond where they share so much without a spoken word,” the mom-of-two said.
The blending of two families across foreign borders has presented obstacles, but the family tries to look at circumstances positively and as opportunities to learn and grow.
“When we approach every situation this way, it helps develop a spirit of gratitude and thankfulness for everything and anything,“ Cheyanne said. ”We also believe in being fully open, real, raw, authentic, and transparent in our marriage. We hold nothing back.”
This, Cheyanne said, has helped them to come from a place of nonjudgment, and full acceptance, toward each other so that they can both grow.
Reflecting back on the entire journey thus far, Cheyanne gives full credit for the success to her faith in God.
“I’ve been praying for my husband since I was a teenager,“ she said.” My parents will tell you, they’ve been praying for him since I was a little girl. I began writing letters to him in my 20s, and thankfully, I was able to give them to Kim before he got on the plane to head back to Belgium the week we were married.”
She stressed that, looking back at their story in its entirety, there’s “no question God was involved.”
“There are so many little intricacies, details, and miracles that have happened over the span of decades that led us to one another,” Cheyanne said. “Did we have to make the choices to make the leap of faith? Absolutely. But, do we believe God led us there, to one another? Heck yes.”
The two are now walking stride in stride, bolstering one another in every aspect of life—particularly as they grow spiritually.
“When we first met, and I shared with Kim about my Christian faith, it was completely new and foreign to him to have someone, especially a Christian, share about a personal relationship with God,“ Cheyanne said. ”To him, growing up in a Catholic country, God wasn’t personal, and seemed very distant and detached.”
After Kim read a book on the meaning of marriage by a Christian pastor and saw God’s design for marriage, Cheyanne said, he ultimately “fell in love with God Himself.” Now, she supports her husband in his pursuit of spiritual growth, and he is for her an example of child-like and pure faith.
Cheyanne, a blogger, coach, and entrepreneur, who is now living the life of her dreams, said she wants to inspire and encourage others to go on their pursuit of an adventurous life.
“Life is meant to be an adventure, but it exists outside your comfort zone,” she said. “You’ll never regret the chances you took, just the ones you never took.”
