It was her first date with Jason that had Mandy thinking something special could be in the works. “I excused myself and while reapplying lip gloss thought, ‘This man has a lot of potential,'” the 35-year-old sales manager from Washington state recalled.
Mandy’s epiphany marked a transformation of her turning form skeptic of online dating into a beneficiary. It was a journey that began in November 2010 when she had her first date with Jason, 34-years-old, and also from Washington.
The Grotto in Portland was where that first date took place, as an annual Christmas festival was being held on the grounds. “And so," Mandy said, “our first encounter was filled with lights, caroling and the glow of Christmas.”
Both Mandy and Jason were close to their families, with her as the youngest of seven and him as the oldest of four. Even more important, each had a grounding in the Church. Mandy is an avid reader of the likes of Christopher West and Peter Kreeft, while Jason loves attending old cathedrals and embracing the rich liturgical heritage of the Church by dropping in on a Latin Mass or in the Byzantine rite.
It was that love for the Faith that came out most clearly to Mandy on that first date and even more than his politeness and good looks, drew her too him. “At the end of our evening, Jason gave me a Courtship prayer card and I was hooked,” she told CatholicMatch.
The only concern Mandy had after that first date was the too-good-to-be-true phenomena. It left her even more nervous for their second date a few days later. But that date, and the ensuing one was as good as the first and their feelings for each other never stopped growing.
