Well, if it's any consolation meeting your lad, Crippen, I have a story for you.
My wife has chat buddies from all over the world on the internet, but mostly from England. One of the blokes she was chatting with for quite some time was from Stoke-on-Trent. My wife, ever the matchmaker, thought he would be perfect for my sister. So she introduced them to each other online and they established quite a rapport.
The finally decided to meet in person. Craig would fly out to meet my sister. He spent the night before his trip to the states in London. His plane was supposed to fly out for their first face to face meeting on September 12, 2001. As you might have guessed, he didn't fly out that day.
He did finally get a flight out a week or so later. Today, he is my brother in law!
Not saying that this would happen for you, but I thought it was interesting that the distance and terror attacks did not stop two people who were made for each other from meeting.