I (Therese) just finished grad school and had taken a break from dating while in
school. I had been a member of Catholic Match for some time and had met
some great people, but had yet to met "the one." I began saying a
Rosary Novena to meet my future spouse. About two days after the novena
was finished, I decided to get back on Catholic Match for "the heck of
it." I came across Michael's profile and noticed that he was living in
Wichita, which was not too far from Kansas City. I remembered his
picture before and thought that he was very handsome, but I also
remembered that he did not live anywhere close to Kansas City, so I
never pursued anything. I decided to send him a smile. He responded
right away and sent me a message. I could not read the message, because
I had let my subscription expire, so I decided that I would renew for
just one month - never expecting anything.
He wanted to meet
right away and was coming into Kansas City for the weekend. I agreed to
it, but I emailed him outside Catholic Match with my regular email. I
didn't hear from him that weekend, and I thought it was strange,
because he seemed so eager. I sent him another email a few days later
through the Catholic Match email, and told him that I hoped that he had
a nice time in Kansas City and that it was great emailing him. He,
again, responded right away through the Catholic Match email. He
thought that I never responded to his proposal to meet, as he did not
get my email through my regular AOL account. My email had gone to his
spam folder! He found it and apologized, saying that he thought that I
might have been scared off from his proposal to meet right away.
We
talked on the phone for the next two months and began developing strong
feelings. We decided to meet about the second week in December, about
two months after my initial "smile." He came to Kansas City, and we met
for the first time in person on the feast of Our Lady of Guadelupe.
Instantly, it was like we had known each other forever and had met
before. By the end of the weekend, Michael told me that he was going to
marry me some day. It was crazy but also so natural.
We ended
up marrying on October 24 of the next year, the feast of St. Raphael,
patron saint of singles looking for a spouse. St. Raphael also was the
original name for the Catholic Match website. Clearly, God and Our Lady
had a hand in our meeting.
Thanks to Catholic Match, we have a
beautiful life together and are expecting our first child at the end of
August. Love is definitely worth waiting for.
