When we least expect God to send a miracle is when we receive the greatest!
Celeste had been a member of Catholic Match for over a year, and
was getting discouraged with dating. After having been on more then
thirty-five dates as a CM member and still coming up empty, she began
to wonder if perhaps God was calling her to be a missionary. Sam had
lost his wife to cancer, and moved to Virginia to be closer to his son
and granddaughter. He spent time with his family and got involved with
different church activities and service organizations in town. But even
though this was keeping him busy, there was still something missing in
his life. One day, he was reading about his former church back in
Pennsylvania, when, in the column, was a link to Catholic Match. Why is
this here?, he wondered. So he went there, created an account and found
Celeste.
Sam spent most of his initial time as a quiet member. He just
browsed the profiles and he and Celeste struck a correspondence in
December, though nothing happened immediately. Celeste was caring for
her ailing father, and the frequent travel to and from New Orleans left
her exhausted both emotionally and physically. So Sam didn’t get his
hopes up—there was no guarantee she’d even return to Virginia. So he
continued to browse. Finally he decided it was time to get up his nerve
and start asking people out. He went to his favorites list—of which
Celeste was a part—and saw she was back in Virginia. He dropped her a
line, and things came together quickly. For all practical purposes,
they went straight from initial correspondence to a face-to-face
meeting. “The e-mails and phone calls were really just for the purpose
of firming up the time and place”, he recalled.
They met at a casual Italian restaurant in Richmond. “She was
better looking in person”, Sam recalled. “I said ‘Thank you God’ when I
pulled up next to her.” For her part, Celeste was impressed, but still
not sure if she had the energy to pursue a relationship. “But he kept
persisting”, she says. And “we both found that being together brought
us joy, laughter and peace.”
Sam’s persistence applied all the way to popping the question.
The first two times he proposed marriage she rebuffed him. On the third
time, she finally said yes. “I couldn’t’ find a reason to say no”, she
teasingly recalls. He replied that this was good, because he was
getting tired of asking.
This was Sam’s first experience in dating online and he struck
gold with the first one he tried. He advises others not to be hasty
when it comes to judging what people say on their profile or what they
look like. “Don’t try and make too many decisions based on what you
see. If you just see one thing that looks interesting, take a chance.”
As they move toward marriage, they’ve learned about making
tradeoffs. He’s started to learn swing dancing for her, and already
reports weight loss from their dancing sessions every Friday night. In
turn, she’s going to learn to play golf. He bought her some clubs, and
after they get moved into the new house they are going to start hitting
the links together.
Sam and Celeste will be moving to South Carolina to be closer
to her daughter. So much has transpired in their lives in such a short
time, and they look forward to sharing their faith, life and joy with
each other. “God will bring love, if we wait for His timing, Celeste
reminds us. “Thank you CM!”
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