When Gilbert first sent Joanna a message on CatholicMatch, she ignored it. At first glance, she didn't feel interested in pursuing anything. However, a year later, she ended up giving Gilbert a chance. Eventually, she came to realize that this unassuming man was the gift that she'd been waiting to receive!
This relationship was a long time coming!
For eight years during the traditional Filipino nine-day Christmas dawn Masses, Joanna would ask God to send her a husband as a birthday gift. "I can still recall, in 2008, when I started to ask our Lord Jesus in prayer to bless me with a husband," recalls Joanna, 44.
Each subsequent Christmas season—from 2008 through 2016—she would pray for a husband. The waiting process felt challenging, but Joanna trusted that God needed that time to prepare her for marriage.
"God had indeed made me joyful, peaceful, fulfilled, and fruitful in the tasks that He had given me. He expanded my skills in teaching and church ministry service. In 2013, as I sought His will, the Lord gave me His affirmation that married life was my vocation. And that married life would not be a disappointment," she shares.
On March 24, 2015, Joanna joined CatholicMatch because she thought CatholicMatch offered her the best chance of finding a faithful Catholic. Less than a month later, Gilbert, from Austin, Texas, contacted Joanna and expressed interest. Unfortunately, she didn't recognize him as someone she'd like to get to know better.
In June 2016, she felt guided back to Gilbert, who had expressed admiration for her.
Back in 1996...
From childhood, Gilbert knew that he wanted to be married. He joined CatholicMatch in 1996—back in the infancy of the site when it was known as Saint Raphael's Catholic Singles. Like Joanna, Gilbert sought someone with strong Catholic values who considered marriage a lifetime commitment. Gilbert didn't want to compromise his standards and values when searching for a spouse. He intended to wait until such time the Lord brought her to him. He prayed, searched, and waited for a Catholic woman who would love him as much as he loved her.
The years of waiting felt trying, but by God's grace, Gilbert's search ended when Joanna decided she wanted to get to know him better.
A visit to Manilla!
Beginning the end of June 2016, they emailed each other for almost a year before they began video chatting. Then in the summer of 2017, Gilbert traveled to Manila for two weeks.
"During the two weeks we spent together, we both enjoyed eating meals together. We attended a Holy Mass celebration in church, visited an orphanage, and we had an overnight stay in a beautiful beach resort in Batangas—where he taught me to swim properly. We also prayed together, went to confession, and we joined a birthday celebration of our parish priest."
Joanne also introduced Gilbert to her family and friends. Both of them felt like their days weren't long enough to fill in everything they wanted to do and say.
"It was truly a blissful two weeks of being together," they say.
An impromptu proposal!
While on the visit, Gilbert told Joanna that he loved her, and she said she felt the same. "We both went to the Greenbelt Chapel in Makati to attend the Holy Mass together and to thank God for the gift of each other," she shares.
Before Gilbert's trip ended, he let it slip that he wanted to marry Joanna. He had initially planned to propose when she visited him in Texas at a later date.
"I told Joanna, "I want to spend the rest of my life with you," Gilbert, 57, recalls.
She answered, "Yes!"
It was time to get her Mom's approval.
After Gilbert returned home to Texas, the couple communicated frequently, and they prayed together often over video chat. Six months into their engagement, Gilbert traveled to New Jersey to formally ask Joanna's mom permission to marry Joanna. After giving her blessing, Gilbert and his future mother-in-law flew to the Philippines on February 12, 2018. They went to surprise Joanna and because Gilbert wanted to make their engagement official.
The Wedding!
On September 15, 2018, Joanna and Gilbert joined their lives in a wedding Mass at Saint Patrick's Catholic Church in Texas. "Our church wedding was simple, solemn, and beautiful. It was so memorable that our loved ones came to witness our union," she says.
In closing, the couple shares that one of the things they appreciate about marriage is to have someone to pray with daily.
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