I was studying abroad in France, and bored during a month-long
winter break, when my mom forwarded me a link to a blog post about
Catholic dating sites, along with the note, "Have you ever considered
this?" Well, I hadn't. But I was bored, so I signed up for Catholic
Match and created a long and rambly profile. (I didn't really care if I
met someone or not, since I was living abroad for another semester. I
wouldn't be able to "date" for a while whether I met someone online or
not!)
About a week later, the site told me that I should check
out the profile of a guy named Matthew, who lived back home in Chicago.
He looked at my profile, and sent me a message. I thought he looked
like a distinct possibility, so I signed up for membership in order to
be able to read his message-- and with my reply I began our six-month
long pen pal relationship, while we were living thousands of miles
apart. I had always been worried about "dating," because I didn't want
to start a relationship before solidifying a friendship, so this was
the ideal courtship! We met in person three days after I returned to
the States, and hit it off in person as well. (Phew!)
We dated
for eleven months in person (with me at college seven hours away for
much of that time) before he proposed, and we got married eleven months
(including more out-of-state college) after that. So our relationship
was more long-distance than most!
I printed out our months of
e-mail correspondence as a wedding gift, and in total, we wrote more
than 250 pages of letters to each other before we even met in person.
The
great thing about Catholic Match, for us, was the opportunity to meet
someone whom we never would have found otherwise. Chicago's a big city,
and we lived on different sides of it. We're both introverts-- he would
find it hard to drum up the courage to approach me in public if we did
perchance meet, and I wouldn't feel comfortable agreeing to go on a
date with a stranger. We were able to narrow down the world's
population to just those who were looking to date and who were
Catholic, and let God and the Internet do the rest!
Timeline:
I
made my Catholic Match profile around New Year's 2008, and we "met"
about a week later. We met in person in June 2008, and got engaged in
May of 2009. We got married April 17th, 2010.
Favorite Stories:
*We
went bowling one evening, a few hours after I'd broken two of my toes,
so I got to see early on how caring and accommodating Matthew was. He
was such a gentleman, even though I wasn't at the top of my game.
*It
rained on our first three dates, as well as the night Matthew proposed.
Contrary to the weather forecast, our wedding day was gorgeously sunny.
*The
first night Matthew met my parents, my dad nearly killed him by giving
him a taste of one of the hottest hot sauces ever made. The first time
I met Matthew's parents was at his dad's birthday party, so I got to
meet the entire extended family all in one go. The fact that I speak
some Russian made it easier to understand their Polish!
*Some of our most fun dates have been at used book sales! Our shelves creak under the weight of these courtship purchases.
*Our
first big "fight" (and a good indicator of our level of Catholicity)
was which arrangement of "Ave Maria" we would have sung at the wedding.
Bach-Gounod emerged victorious after a long and harrowing battle,
defeating the usually triumphant Schubert.
*Many of our guests commented on how much of a feeling of holiness there was at the wedding and the reception.
*God is good, and the Internet can certainly be one of his instruments! Thanks for introducing us, Catholic Match!
