Border Love: Newlyweds Barred From Entering Each Other's Country

Sept. 25, 2009— -- Like any newlywed couple, David Williams and Janeane Ardiel enjoy looking into each other's eyes and imagining many happy years together.

But their only physical contact comes during weekly meetings at a picnic table in a park on the U.S.-Canadian border while they sort out the legal complications that prevent the two from entering each other's country.

"I was just devastated," Ardiel said of the day in July when she was banned from entering the U.S. for six months after officials told her they feared she would stay with her husband illegally instead of going back to Canada.

They've known for a couple of years that Williams was barred from entering Canada because of a 2003 DUI conviction. The government has told him that he needs to wait at least five years from the time his probation ends in the U.S., which was in 2004.

For now, the couple, both 45, are just happy they get to see each other at all while their paperwork is being processed. They told ABCNews.com they didn't know about the Peace Arch International Park that straddles the two countries until they hired a lawyer who has worked with clients in similar situations and knew just the place for the two to meet.

"It's been absolutely awesome that I can see him," Ardiel said of their picnic meetings, which include lunch and about four hours together each week. "At least you can hold hands -- you can do something physical."

The two, both previously divorced parents, began a relationship over the phone after Ardiel's sister met Williams, then living in Florida, while visiting Williams' friend.

"She's never done anything like that before," Ardiel said. "She said 'You know how there's that perfect guy for you? I found him.'"

Ardiel was the one to initiate the first phone call in October 2006, and both said they clicked right away.

"Next thing you know we were talking every day," Williams said. "We fell in love over the phone."

Ardiel agreed it was an easy relationship right from the start, despite the distance between British Columbia, where she lived, and Florida, where he lived.

"We talked for hours on the phone," she said. "We could talk about anything and everything."