A Nationwide Search and His Grandmother's Ring

After his first marriage had ended in divorce, Andrew followed God’s call and converted to Catholicism.

Since his first marriage was not sacramentally valid, it was soon annulled. Andrew had then reentered the dating scene with faith and sacramental marriage in mind. CatholicMatch seemed a natural avenue to try. But come June of 2002, though he’d met some interesting people, nothing ever “stuck.” Maybe online dating wasn’t for him after all? He made himself one last goal--before quitting CatholicMatch for good, he’d expand his search radius to include the whole country. He couldn’t have less luck online, right? 

Lo and behold, a beautiful single mom named Lissette popped up.

Taking a shot in the dark, Andrew messaged her about her beautiful name. Unbeknownst to him, this New York lady was also on the verge of leaving CatholicMatch. But his message piqued her interest--mostly because of his hilarious candid profile picture. 

“I’m glad he didn’t use something better, because he might have been taken before he had a chance to message me!” Lissette now laughs. She responded promptly but without expectations. Since they were living on opposite sides of the country, she figured some innocent chit chat couldn’t really do any harm. After all, her other long-distance CatholicMatch dates never went anywhere, so neither would this one. (If only she’d known!)

Despite (or perhaps because of) their mutual what’s-the-worst-that-can-happen start, the two thirty-somethings hit it off immediately. Suddenly a shot-in-the-dark message turned into texting, phone calls, and even FaceTime.

Perhaps they should meet in person, after all!

Lissette’s sister works for an airline and had the chance to share travel benefits with family members. So, she flew to California to meet Andrew in person in San Fransisco, three hours away from his smaller hometown.

“The date didn’t go as well as we had hoped, but after already investing a couple of months into getting to know each other, we felt like we should try again!” Andrew recalls. After all, God can work with even the bumpiest start. So when Lissette planned a trip to visit her sister, taking her kids all the way to Cincinnati, Andrew suggested he fly there to meet her again for a dinner date.

“This time around we had a lovely time!” Lissette says. After the jitters of the first meeting, this second one gave them the chance to see the connection they’d had through all those phone calls and video chats. Their relationship continued to blossom as they discovered each other’s deep faith lives in the Catholic church, and how they both loved to practice traditions of the faith in practical ways.

They also discovered complementary traits: Lissette was bubbly and extroverted, while Andrew’s introversion gave him a quieter nature. As their relationship progressed, Andrew flew to Long Island to meet Lissette’s closest family and friends, who quickly voiced their approval of him. He returned again around Halloween, and then Lissette took her two children to California to celebrate Thanksgiving with Andrew’s family. Then they celebrated Christmas together on Long Island. 

The long-distance between them, while difficult at times, never became an issue.

“We were able to see how we could take the difficulty of being apart as an opportunity to grow in our faith and trust in God,” Lissette explains. Just before the new year rang in, Andrew accepted a job with EWTN as a video editor for their news bureau in Washington DC. He relocated to the east coast in early January, the first time in his life he had moved away from his sunny California hometown.

But Andrew was confident in his move. Several months before, he’d been contemplating his love for Lissette. That day, his mom presented him with a family heirloom they had thought was long ago lost: his late grandmother’s wedding ring!

He took its sudden reappearance as a confirmation of his intentions. This ring entered Lissette’s life on Saint Joseph’s feast day in March, when Andrew proposed to her on a north shore beach. (This was the same beach Lissette would visit whenever they had a chance to talk on the phone during their long-distance days.)

They plan to wed in 2022, at Lissette’s parish on Long Island. Afterward, she and her children will join Andrew in the capitol area.