A Transatlantic Romance

Noah, 34, who was stationed in Norway at the time, says he was “ready to meet a woman he could marry—someone who was Catholic in more than just name only.” Angela, 33, who was a single mother of a four-year old and working full time in Texas, says, “I was under pressure to ‘get back out there’ from my mom.” Angela and Noah both felt like their busy lifestyles made it unlikely they would meet the person they wanted to marry by accident, so they joined CatholicMatch.

The couple says they were both initially attracted to each other's profile on CatholicMatch. They started talking on the phone and using FaceTime. “We found we could talk easily for hours,” says Angela. The couple also bonded over the fact that they both had children. Angela has a daughter from a previous marriage that was annulled in early 2013, and Noah has a daughter, 11, from a previous relationship.

Despite the long distance separating them, they were able to meet in person only two weeks after they began talking. “As it worked out, Noah had a trip planned to Central Texas for Christmas, which is where we both call home,” says Angela.

Their first date was on Christmas night in 2013. “We met at an IHOP since that's the only place that was open on Christmas. It was an amazing evening. We talked like old friends and laughed. Finally around 4am, I commented that I was getting tired, to which Noah responded, ‘Let's have another cup of coffee. We only have one chance to stay up talking all night the first night we meet.’ So that's exactly what we did. Our date ended at sunrise the next morning, and we both came away from that date feeling cautiously optimistic that we might just have met the person we'd each been waiting for,” says Angela.

The couple says that their dating experience was "pretty odd" because of the long distance, but they made it work. “Our relationship never slowed down after our initial meeting. With both of us in our 30s, we each knew exactly what we wanted and needed in a relationship—and we found exactly that in each other,” says the couple.

They made their long-distance relationship work by talking on FaceTime for an hour and a half each day. “We would pray together then talk,” says Angela.

“We also made more than a few transatlantic trips to see each other.”

It was during one of those trips that Noah proposed to Angela in early 2014. When Angela arrived in Norway to visit Noah, he picked her up from the airport with the ring in his pocket. “As we both take the idea of marriage (and engagement) very seriously, we'd been talking about it for some time. We collaborated on the ring.”

The couple also shared that Noah had been practicing his proposal many times throughout the relationship by saying things like, “Angela, I love you, will you mmmmmmake me a steak?” “When Angela arrived at the airport, it was just a matter of slipping the ring on her finger,” says the couple.

In late 2014, the couple had a small wedding with a Mass that was celebrated by a priest friend. “We loved our wedding. We planned it exactly the way we wanted it. It was centered around us and our children from previous relationships. We were surrounded by our siblings, parents, and just a few others who had been a big part of our life together. The priest also gave an extra blessing not only to us as a couple, but to our new little family formed that day. We still look back on it as a perfect day.”

Just a few weeks after their honeymoon, the couple received two big surprises. “We were very surprised to find ourselves pregnant a few weeks after our honeymoon! Our girls had prayed and prayed for a baby brother, and God came through for them shockingly fast. The baby is due exactly 40 weeks from our wedding day,” says Angela. Their other surprise was less happy; Noah was deployed and the couple had to say a “temporary goodbye” to each other just two months after saying “I do.”

“Now we are waiting for two special events—the arrival of our son and Noah's return home! Both will happen in mid-June,” says Angela.