Carrie’s sister not only signed her up for CatholicMatch, she managed her account, too. “I was just done with any kind of dating – too many disappointing experiences and even being ridiculed for not wanting to compromise my values,” said Carrie.
“The Catholic faith is my faith; it is so integral to my life. I can’t not be Catholic,” she added. “I have care for all people, and would never dismiss a person’s dignity because he or she is not Catholic; however, I wanted a partner in life who would be a partner in faith, too. It’s too intimate to not share, and I don’t believe in withholding any part of oneself in marriage.”
CatholicMatch provided the opportunity to meet a man with the same values. “I wanted a way to find men who are into their faith and love the saints or the sacraments. I was looking for someone who is striving for holiness,” Carrie explained. “That’s what’s important to me, and that’s what CatholicMatch considers in the filters.”
Carrie’s sister was doing some filtering, too, and said she would tell Carrie when she found someone promising. But that wasn’t how Carrie found Tom.
“Funny thing: she missed Tom,” said Carrie. “I saw his email when I was signed on to respond to someone else.” Tom had sent Carrie a message with a simple question about her goals for the day.
This thought-provoking question, along with family pictures on his profile, made her reply. “That’s a conversation starter, not the normal ‘Hey, how are you?’, she said. “There’s nothing wrong with that, but goals… that’s a thinking question, and I like thinkers.”
“Her smile, sense of humor, eyes and the creative way in which she answered and described her life and her day was what grabbed my attention,” added Tom. “At this point in my life, I knew what I was looking for and wasn’t afraid to pursue or fight for anyone that I was head over heels for, like Carrie,” he said. “The starting off at the screen means you can develop something organically and let God pedal the bike as we sit in the back.”
After matching in April of 2014, the two exchanged messages, graduated to emailing, and eventually Facetimed. This went on for several months, since Tom is from Omaha, Nebraska and Carrie lives in North Texas. Long distance wasn’t easy. “We worked, and still work around it by a concerted effort at quality communication,” said Carrie.
Tom flew to Texas for the first time on October 2. He asked her to be his girlfriend in the car at the airport by giving her a note with options to check, and she checked yes.
“Since it’s relatively colder in Omaha, I was able to give her one of my personal coats so that others would know we were going steady,” said Tom.
He stayed with some friends of Carrie’s and they spent the weekend together. “I feel like our date was not one event, but an experience that stretched over the weekend,” remembered Carrie. “I think the most romantic thing we did was pack up a picnic and eat in the park at sunset. Then we met up with some other friends of mine from church to watch his team play football. We watched the game on TV at my friend’s house, and I may have fallen asleep on his shoulder.” She thought Tom was really cute and remembered how sick he got the next night from eating too-hot jalapeño peppers.
A few months later, he visited again over the holidays. They went to see a movie together. “I don’t remember all the specifics about the night other than I was very calm, very natural, not rushed, and that was the only place in the universe that I wanted to be at that exact moment in time,” Tom said.
He is currently looking for a job in Texas. “I think he plans on proposing after he finds a position and is kind of settled,” said Carrie. “It’s got to be his plan to ask, but if/when he does, I’ll say ‘yes!’”
Continue Reading
