Lots of reasons, but some of them the same reason anyone leaves their country to go see another place, simple human curiosity. Mainly though it was for legal rights because our children are not biologically mine, and their biological Cambodian father could've potentially caused problems in our life at any time. I was required at that time to earn $2,000 USD per month in Cambodia to be granted the privilege to marry, so we decided to make a two-part effort.
Why not go abroad and get married? We could go as close to the USA as possible to give my American friends and family members who are scared of Cambodia a chance to meet us. Also, we aimed to do this in a country we had a small chance of immigration in, just in case we liked the place and wanted to stay. We could've stayed in Ecuador, but our lawyer screwed us, and this caused a cascade of negative things to follow in the wake. !ENGAGE 10