Mark and Leslie’s long-distance relationship was going strong. All signs were pointing to Leslie being “the one,” but then Leslie broke the news to Mark that she wanted to date someone local.
Though disappointed and hurt, Mark told her that he still wanted to remain friends.
He'd waited ten years to meet a woman like her
After being on CatholicMatch on and off for four years, Mark decided it was time for him to put more effort into
taking advantage of what the site had to offer. “It was when I moved to Portland, Oregon, that I decided to give it my all,” explains the 40-year-old.
Since two close friends of his met their spouses on CatholicMatch, Mark was motivated not to give up.
In July of 2015, Leslie showed up as a suggested match for Mark. He was chatting with a couple of women on the site, but the timing of their responses was slow, so he assumed that those two connections weren’t going to go anywhere.
Mark was intrigued enough by Leslie to take a closer look at her profile. He thought she was cute, and he approved of how she answered the key theological questions.
“I liked that she answered 'yes' to all seven questions. I saw that she was from Mexico—I've been to Mexico several times—and I appreciate the Mexican culture,” explains Mark, who speaks Spanish fluently.
Another thing that stood out from her profile was that she’d been a part of the Neocatechumenal Way community for seven years, which Mark was also a member.
“That detail made me think, ‘Okay, I'm going to give this one all that I’ve got because maybe she’s my match,’” he remembers.
She liked that he wanted traditional roles
Looking at Mark’s profile, Leslie noticed that Mark wanted a woman who desired a traditional marriage where the man is the head of the household and the woman takes care of the children and domestic needs of the family. This was something she was looking for in a husband.
“It's very difficult to find a guy who thinks like that,” she says.
But then her confidant started muscling in...
During the first couple months of long-distance dating, Leslie was confiding in a gentleman friend about her relationship with Mark. This man, who lived in the same town, was offering her a lot of advice about his take on Mark, and he used this an opportunity to move in on her by asking Leslie out. That’s when Leslie told Mark that she was more interested in dating someone local.
“I was caught off guard a little, but I decided to trust in Father God,” Mark says. “I thought maybe I was [meant] to move on and try elsewhere.”
Mark decided to leave the relationship in God’s hands, and he continued talking to Leslie. He thought maybe he could wait out the relationship that Leslie was having with her confidant, and he was right. “I thought she was the one,” he explains.
After a few months of dating this other guy, Leslie realized that this man was not for her. “I found out that this man only wanted to have sex with me. I believe in chastity during dating.”
When Leslie told Mark that she wasn’t dating the local man anymore, he jumped at the chance to resurrect their romance. “I thought, “Wow! God what are you doing now?” he remembers. “It just so happened I was getting ready to take a vacation, and I thought God was telling me to go down and meet Leslie for the first time.”
Seeing Mark in person made him real
On December 31st, 2015, after four months of communicating long-distance, Mark flew to Mexico for a week-and-a-half stay. During their time together, Mark felt a sense of peace about their relationship that confirmed to him that he wanted to marry Leslie.
For Leslie, Mark’s visit was a chance for her to see that he was who he said he was. “His coming made our relationship real,” she says.
Mark adds, “It was a great first visit, and it made me want to go back and have a second visit after a couple of months.”
During that first year of dating Mark was able to make five trips to Mexico to see Leslie, and she came to Oregon three times.
A box in a box in another box...
There was no doubt in Mark’s mind that Leslie was the woman for him. With the help of Leslie’s parents and one of her brothers, Mark secretly obtained Leslie’s ring size. In August of 2017, he returned to Mexico planning to propose. From the moment he picked Leslie up, he kept looking for opportunities to pop the question. “I was asking God over and over to please help me,” he says.
Finally, it came to Mark that he should propose to her at the church that they first attended Mass together. However, when they got to the church, it was closed. Luckily, there was a 24-hour Eucharistic Adoration chapel.
“We were both kneeling in the chapel, and I said, ‘Hey, I brought a gift for you.’ She started to open it. I hadn’t realized that her brother and his wife had wrapped the ring in a box within a box and another box.”
When Leslie finally saw the ring, Mark said to her, “What do you think about us getting married?”
Leslie—overwhelmed with emotion—cried tears of joy.
Happily ever after
On January 6th, 2018, Mark and Leslie were married in her hometown of Queretaro, Mexico. Two hundr
ed family and friends were present. “The wedding and the party afterward were unbelievably joyful,” the couple shares.
They are making a life for themselves in Oregon.
As a side note, for those intimidated by the Visa process, Leslie says that the process was not very difficult for her. Mark says it’s because they had a little help from St. Raphael.
