Keeping the Faith Brought This Couple Happiness
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John and Meredith both felt called to the vocation of marriage, but as the years passed, they both began to doubt it would ever happen. He was 46, she was 40, and it seemed like time was passing them by. But through their doubts, they kept faith and kept trying.
John & Meredith felt like their call to marriage would be in vain, but they kept persisting until they found each other.
"Both of us were looking for someone who would share all our beliefs in the Catholic faith," John said. "It was not an easy journey to step out into the world of online dating, but we felt pulled by the Holy Spirit to join CatholicMatch."
In October of 2012, John had been on the site for over a year and the right woman still hadn't come along. He began to pray a novena to the Blessed Mother. What he didn't know was that at the same time, Meredith was beginning a novena of her own, to St. Ann, the mother of the Blessed Virgin. During these novenas, John and Meredith's path would finally cross.
"I received an emotigram, a little smiley face from Meredith," John recalled. "I responded with a smiley face back to her and followed up with a note a couple days later."
They were both interested in meeting, but Divine Providence pushed the first date back a month. John and Meredith each live in New Jersey, about an hour and a half drive time apart, where he works as an accountant and she a chemical engineer. Their area was struck by Hurricane Sandy. It was mid-November when they finally met face-to-face for a date that included lunch, a walk and a stop at an ice cream shop.
Over the ensuing seven months, John and Meredith saw how much they shared in common. "One of the things I love about Meredith is her enthusiasm," John said. "She is always eager to go places, see new sights, and do new things."
The couple enjoys hiking and community theatre, and their "go-see-do" approach to life is built on appreciating the simple things. John and Meredith's ideal date would be going for a gelato ice cream and then spending a holy hour in Eucharistic adoration at the nearby Little Sisters of The Poor."
John brought Meredith back to the ice cream shop of their first date and stunned her with a ring.
A shared commitment to family also drew them closer. "My family took to Meredith right away and my nieces and nephews immediately loved her." John could also easily see how loved Meredith was by her family and how much joy they all drew from each other.
Seven months after that first date, John and Meredith were back in the ice cream shop they had stopped on their first date. It was here that he proposed, catching her completely off-guard. Stunned, but thrilled, Meredith said yes. They were married this past October, one year after their first online connection. They are settling into their second month as a wedded couple.
"We hope it comes through just how much of a miracle this marriage is for both of us," John said. "Were it not for our faith, I think both of us would have lost heart completely, long before we met, God and the Catholic faith mean everything to us."
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