One of the first emails Angela and I (Chris) exchanged said something
like "since we live so far apart from each other I doubt anything
romantic could ever happen between us..." Little did we know. When we
first met on Catholic Match, she lived in Colorado and I was still in
Massachusetts. But that didn't keep us from developing a close
friendship and for many weeks a day never went by without the two of us
at least exchanging a few words online or on the phone.
We had
many things in common, including similar "relationship histories." We
also shared similar perspectives on the role of faith in our lives,
accepting all the teachings of the Church, and an interest in Pope John
Paul II's theology of the body. (In my case, this interest was a direct
result of other friendships on Catholic Match...thanks guys!)
We
first met in person in March 2004, when Angela went on a road trip to
visit friends and family. Our meeting got off to a rocky start--she got
lost trying to follow my bad directions and I had to go out and find
her—but it was worth it all when we finally got together. I couldn't
believe how beautiful she was! (And I feel silly typing it but she says
she felt the same way about me.)
We spent a wonderful weekend
together. The healing and growth in love that took place in both our
souls during those few days was amazing - God was definitely with us
during that time! There were some misgivings, but we parted ways
knowing somehow that we probably wouldn't stay "just friends" much
longer.
A few weeks later I flew to Colorado to meet Angela and
her family, and by that time we both knew that something special was
happening between us. We decided to enter a real dating relationship
(despite the fact that we still lived a thousand miles apart), and
everything from that point on was special to us because we were doing
everything as a couple for the first time.
For our first
"official date" we went to see Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor
Dreamcoat. The soundtrack is now a permanent addition to our CD
collection for road trips, because of all the happy memories that we
get from it. On her second visit to Massachusetts, I gave her a promise
ring. We still weren't sure what the future held, but we were committed
to seeking God's will for our lives and discerning whether it involved
each other.
Over the next few months, we discussed our plans for
the future. She had been planning to study theology in Australia, but
that turned out to be impossible, so she instead decided to go to
Franciscan University of Steubenville. That was only a full day's
driving from where I was living at the time and we were both
thrilled--but I had started to ask myself what held me so far away from
her to begin with. I was working a dead-end job, and it paid all my
bills but I knew that if I ever wanted to really serve God with
everything I had, especially in the vocation of marriage, I couldn't
stay that way forever. After lots of prayer and discussion, we decided
to both move to separate apartments near Steubenville, where I would
also apply to grad school.
After spending at least eighty hours
on the highway moving our stuff from opposite ends of the country, and
spending a wonderful month actually living in the same city, and not
having to resort to the phone or instant messaging when we wanted to
talk, our doubts were gone. I secretly marked out the date I was going
to propose to her- September 18, but mother nature threw a wrench in
the works when flooding hit the region on September 17th, and we wound
up spending several hours moving all her belongings to the top floor of
her house and attempting to navigate around landslides and underwater
bridges on the way to higher ground.
Finally we reached my
apartment and, still damp from the rain, said our evening prayers. When
we finished, I asked her to marry me... and she said yes! In the four
months since then, we've only grown closer. Our wedding will be at the
end of July. Thank you Catholic Match, from the depths of our hearts.
