When Tyler expanded his search radius to “worldwide,” he wasn’t actually feeling very bold. He was tired.
Living in rural Minnesota, months of stalled conversations had left him discouraged.
With one month left on CatholicMatch, he widened the map...
In Lima, Peru, María Ximena Rondón was also down to her final month. A journalist who had once written about the Catholic dating platform while working for EWTN / ACI Prensa, she had been praying for her future husband since she was 16.
“I believed without seeing,” she says.
After years of being told she was too serious about her faith, after mission work, travel, and a devastating leg injury that left her with 14 permanent plates and nails, she still trusted God with her future.
In 2024, amused by The Office, she set her search to Scranton, PA, and somehow the algorithm paired her with a quiet outdoorsman in Minnesota.
One bold message changed everything!
Tyler was struck by her depth and struggled to compose a first message to her. “She seemed very intelligent, cultured, and had many life experiences.”
Luckily, she beat him to it! She said, “hi.”
The conversations flowed from there—faith, saints, humor, suffering, dreams. A shared desire to walk the Camino de Santiago strengthened her resolve to fully heal from a traumatic accident that had left her with lasting injuries.
Their video calls became a daily joy for them both. Months later, Tyler made the decision to fly to Peru.
They immediately felt “at home” in each other’s arms.
At the airport in Lima, María Ximena stood with her parents, nerves rising with every arriving passenger.
They had spoken for weeks about how much they longed to hug each other. “When I saw him, all the nerves went away,” she says. “I felt so safe and at home.”
Then came a Christmas proposal with family...
During their courtship, they prayed together across continents. They shared books, discussed theology, and entrusted every uncertainty to Providence.
When long distance stretched their hearts thin, Maria described it as a fasting that tears at the heart. Each day at Mass, before Holy Communion, she asked Christ for strength beyond her own.
Meanwhile, Tyler was making plans.
After learning that Christmas was her favorite feast day of the whole year, he coordinated with her parents to arrange the perfect proposal. He knew her dream was to be engaged at Christmas. He even searched for a ring that reflected the sea she loved along Lima’s Pacific coast.
On Christmas Eve 2024, before the family’s nativity scene, he knelt. Words failed him until Maria’s sister whispered, “Ask the question.”
He did.
She said yes—joyfully, loudly—and then, in her excitement, asked him the same!
Following each other to the end of the world...
They married legally on June 6th in Peru and then received the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony on December 6th, 2025. She walked down the aisle in a silver floral tiara, her family’s rosary wrapped in her bouquet. Though shy and not fluent in Spanish, Tyler read his vows in Spanish—terrified but resolute.
Both describe a deep certainty. Bureaucracy, which often burdens international couples, felt unusually smooth. “We felt God’s hand and our guardian angels helping us,” she says.
Before separating for the visa process, they honeymooned in Patagonia—southern Chile and Argentina—known as “the end of the world.”
“I’ve always told him I’d follow him to the end of the world,” María says.
Among frozen winds and vast waters, they realized they already had. For Tyler, he said it marked “the end of our search.”
Waiting with patience to be reunited.
Today, Tyler has taken a new job in North Dakota, where they plan to build their home once María Ximena receives her green card. In the meantime, she is preparing documents, belongings, praying every day, and waiting.
“It’s a big trial,” she says. “But this is the time for courage.”
They live their love in the present—not postponing it for some future moment when circumstances are easier.
When asked what they look forward to most, Tyler answers simply: “Being together in a normal way.”
Their advice for those ready to give up:
To anyone staring at the final month of a subscription—or the final thread of hope—María offers this:
“Never cease to pray, even when everything seems dark. I prayed for 17 years.”
True love, she insists, is not just a feeling. It is giving yourself completely—virtues and flaws alike.
Tyler adds: “Swallow your fear and go for it. Let God do His part while you do yours.”
From Dunder Mifflin to Minnesota, from Lima’s Pacific shore to Patagonia’s windswept edge, and now on their way to America, their story is not merely about distance traveled. It is about Providence, and two people who almost gave up, but trusted in God instead, and were rewarded.
