Rose was an active member of Singles for Christ and deeply committed to practicing her Catholic Faith. The 29-year-old from Singapore wanted a spouse who felt the same way, so at the start of this year she decided to join CatholicMatch.
A few days later she made a connection with a 37-year-old man from Australia. Matthew’s profile said “I’m not much long-distance relationships, but I guess I could make an exception if the circumstances were right.” Rose confidently believed that she could represent that “right circumstance” and within a few days of making CatholicMatch contact they were chatting on Skype.
The potential couple felt comfortable with each other right away as they found much in common. “We became prayer partners and best of friends right away,” Rose said.
By the end of January that single Skype chat had morphed into daily contact through not only Skype, but Facebook, standard e-mails and text messaging. “We talked about everything under the sun,” Rose told CatholicMatch. “Family, career, hobbies …relationships and marriage.” From the start they were open to whatever God had planned for them.
Rose found herself falling in love with everything about Matthew, from his personality to his faith to “the prettiest brown eyes of anyone I know.” She thought about marriage, but didn’t want to rely on feelings alone. She consulted with family, friends and she consulted the Bible. As much as she wanted to be married, she was convinced God’s timing was always best.
In February, Matthew began calling her “Sunshine” as his pet nickname and for Valentine’s Day serenaded with her “Angels Brought Me Here.” Then came one of those moments that are indisputably the hand of God.
A Singles For Christ Conference was held in the Philippines, where Rose’s family is from and she attended. She met a Filipino lady currently based on the Australian city of Adelaide—where Matthew also lives. Not only that, but this lady knew of him. Rose saw the message from Above loud and clear—all roads were leading to Matthew.
The couple began making plans to get together in Adelaide in July. When Rose consulted her spiritual network though, they advised against the idea. Rose told Matthew that he needed to come and see her first. “He was initially disappointed but he eventually came around,” Rose recalled. Matthew didn’t hesitate at moving up the timetable and planning a visit to her in April. “I wanted to hug him because of my joy excitement,” Rose said.
In the interim period before the trip, Matthew introduced his parents to Rose via Skype and they also established beyond a doubt that theirs was an exclusive relationship. They also came up with the idea of doing a timeline for their life, as a way of understanding each other better. From faith to early school days to college life, from pains and disappointments to joys and successes, they came to know each other a little deeper. Rose could see a great future with Matthew “because he is a man of faith, honor and dignity.”
The face-to-face meeting in April did not disappoint, and they found a chemistry that took their common interests and lifted them up to a new level. They took a trip to the Philippines so he could meet her family and Matthew talked to Rose’s father about a plan for proposing.
At the end of April, as they attended a procession of the Blessed Sacrament, Rose was knelt in prayer, and Matthew told her to open her eyes. In front of her was a ring. She joyfully accepted his proposal.
“God it totally worth waiting for,” Rose said enthusiastically. “His timing is perfect. And there is no feeling this world can offer that compares with the satisfaction of being in God’s will.”
