PC: Hello Honey Photography
She Sent Him a Smile and the Rest Is History
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Grace always knew she was called to marriage.
Only, she was also called to be a hairdresser, which made it rather hard to find the time to get out and meet anyone. Like so many others, she was skeptical of online dating, but after some time and a chat with her parents on the subject she thought “Why not? I’m not meeting anyone in the area here,” so she bought a six-month subscription to CatholicMatch, figuring she would see if anything happened in that time frame.
When two of the six months were up, Grace (now 23) found Joe (now 26). Though she had only been on for two months, he’d been on CatholicMatch for four years and was by now “less than enthusiastic about it.” He was a little outside what she considered ‘driving distance,’ but on the other hand he was cute, seemed pleasant enough, and his profile made her laugh, so she took the plunge of sending a shy little smiley face and waited.
She didn’t have to wait long.
Mere hours later, Joe wrote her back to ask about the cement muffins she had mentioned on her profile. From that promising beginning, they exchanged messages back and forth for a few days, then phone numbers, and finally he asked whether he could come and visit. Grace offered to meet him halfway, but Joe said no; he’d come all the way to meet her.
“This guy was willing to drive eight hours just to come meet me!” Grace recalled. “He made me feel so special.”
They met for the first time Memorial Day weekend. All day Saturday was spent exploring that city of romance, Wilmington, North Carolina. In particular they visited Airlie Gardens; a public estate bordering the river, with beautiful fountains and hanging flowers. Sunday Joe met Grace’s family for Mass and spent the day with them.
“After that first weekend,” Grace said. “I told my mom I was going to marry him. I had never had that confidence with anyone before, but it was like God told me ‘Yes, him. He’s the one I’ve been preparing you for.’”
As it turns out, Joe felt much the same way.
“I knew she was the one after our first date went so well,” he said. “I had a six-hour trip back to my home, and I just remember driving and thinking about her all the way back and thinking that she was probably the one!”
The distance, however, was still an obstacle, as was the fact that Joe was in the military. He had to make a big effort just to be able to come see her one or two weekends a month, and the rest of the time they had to rely on phone conversations. What was more, come October, Joe would be shipping out to California for training.
They had already begun to talk about marriage, and the fact that they both meant it for their end goal, but Joe warned her that he didn’t intend to propose until after his training, since he wanted her to be sure that life with the military was something she really wanted.
On September 22nd, shortly before Joe was to leave for California, Grace’s mother invited her and her siblings to go down to Airlie Gardens in Wilmington, just for a day trip. It was a beautiful day, and she was walking about the gardens, thinking idly what a perfect spot it would be for a marriage proposal. Then she turned around to see her father come towards them, and right behind him was…Joe! She stared and asked what he was doing there.
She didn’t get it until he took her hands and dropped onto one knee.
PC: Rustic Charms Photography
Turns out she was right; it was an excellent site for a marriage proposal, particularly with her whole family present and a ring with her favorite diamonds in it.
“After that,” she said. “The rest is history.” It was several months of juggling training, travel, marriage prep, Christmas, and work, until on April 28th, 2018, one year to the day since they had first started talking on CatholicMatch, they were married. From there Grace moved up to Virginia with her new soldier husband (Joe had been transferred there in the meantime), then come July and they were transferred down to Georgia again.
“There has been the occasional disagreement,” Joe admitted. “But we always reach an understanding soon and are quickly back in our groove of a truly blessed life of love and laughter in the Lord."
Another compensatory benefit appeared between the two moves when Grace announced that she was expecting their first baby, who arrived January 15th of 2019, and whom they both agree has been the biggest highlight of their marriage to date.
Speaking of that marriage Grace sums up her experience:
"I appreciate all the sacrifices [Joe] has made to take care of our family, and his sense of humor at things that tend to stress me out but he helps me to see the amusing side of the situation. I cannot thank CatholicMatch enough for introducing me to my husband, my prince charming, and the love of my life.”
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