Bill was tired of searching.
“I had sought ‘the one’ most of my life,” the forty-something New Yorker said. “God only knows how many times He heard me ask, ‘Could this be that one? Could it be her?’ But he never answered and it never was.”
Bill was beginning to believe his friends were right, that it was foolish to set his standards so high. By his age, he figured, most women like that were married or in religious life.
But something kept him from giving in and lowering his standards. Instead, he focused completely on God – and thereby gave Him room to act.
It started with Bill’s sister Colleen. He and his mother both saw the CM ads in church bulletins and thought it would be a good thing for Colleen to try.
Realizing he couldn’t evaluate the site for his sister without being on it himself, Bill filled out a profile and joined. He was upfront and honest, telling potential visitors to his profile that he was “just visiting.”
But something happened along the way. After three weeks of searching and checking things out, he decided to just try a search for women who were within 10 years of his age and accepted all seven doctrines of faith asked in the CM profile.
Marleen came up.
He looked at her profile and liked it…but she lived in Amsterdam, so he wrote it off. This time it was her who took the initiative. She took Bill’s interview and wrote him a note.
Now it was time for the masterminds of the CM marketing team to do their job and send Bill a discount renewal offer that same day, which he utilized. (We planned it that way – really, we did). He signed on for three more months and things took off from there.
Marleen had planned a trip to Iceland with her father, which had to be canceled because of volcanoes at her destination. She got a refund and still had the time off, so she came to New York to visit Bill.
Immediately they knew they had something special. The next time she crossed the pond, she had an engagement ring waiting for her at the airport. “God could have made us happy in myriad ways,” Bill said. “He could have made us each happy alone. He chose to make us happy together, and there is no greater happiness than his will.”
