When Megan, 25, joined CatholicMatch, her expectations were low: “I thought there would be a lot of ‘creepers’ and people who lie about themselves,” she said.
But Michael, 28, was optimistic: “I saw it as another avenue to meet a good Catholic girl,” he said. Neither knew their decision to join the site would result in what they both desired: a serious relationship, followed by a marriage.
Megan, an office manager at a pro-life pregnancy center in Arizona, joined the site after she saw it advertised in a Catholic newspaper. Michael, an engineer in Texas, joined the site after a breakup.
As Megan sought her match, she asked the men she met a lot of questions and carefully filtered her searches. Despite her efforts, what she got, at first, was not what she wanted. “After meeting one of the guys I was talking to, I decided to delete my profile,” she said. “He was very different than I thought he would be and there was no chemistry at all. I thought they would all be that way.”
But before she closed her account, she decided to take a last look at all the messages she had received. Among them, she found an emotigram from Michael. “He had only sent a wink, and I thought that was weird,” she said, so she hadn’t responded. She decided to explore his profile instead.
“I fell for his sweet smile and personality, based on his profile.” She had been a CatholicMatch member for three months, and he for three years. She decided to give the site a last shot: instead of quitting CatholicMatch, she sent an emotigram back to Michael. It would spark the start of a refreshing conversation.
“Many previous girls were poor conversationalists,” Michael said. But Megan was different and he was drawn to her immediately. “Her gorgeous eyes, hair, and face,” he said. “Her faith was rock solid. She believed in all seven of the faith questions.”
What Megan learned about Michael, in turn, impressed her. “It was his faith, his strength, his honesty, and his moral compass,” she said. “He treated me with respect.” He was interested in dating with marriage in mind. So was she.
Megan and Michael didn't believe in casual dating. They were motivated to date with purpose and discern marriage in a very intentional way. “We wanted to get to know each other in order to discern marriage, to see if we were compatible, and more importantly, to see if (a marriage) was part of God’s plan,” Michael said. “Casual dating is more ‘just for fun,’ with no specific goal.”
They talked for three months via Skype and phone before Michael flew to Arizona for a weekend. After his plane landed, he made one stop – a flower shop – before he went to the pregnancy center where Megan was at work. From her desk at the center, she watched Michael approach the building with flowers. “I smiled real big,” she said.
Michael was nervous. At first, he walked into the wrong building. When he found the right one, no one was at the front desk. Then he looked to the left. “I saw her,” he said. “Her beautiful, bright eyes and lovely dark hair were stunning. My heart beat heavily as she walked around the corner to meet me.”
Before they met in real life, they had agreed that they would not kiss until they married, if marriage turned out to be God’s will. So at the pregnancy center, they hugged. According to both, it was awkward. Their relationship was strong, but it previously had only existed in a cyber world, Michael said. “So it was uncomfortable at first,” he said. “However, that melted away very quickly.”
He left her at the center so she could finish her workday, and so he could meet her father at a Mexican restaurant. There, he asked her dad for permission to date her. He said yes. Michael and Megan spent part of the weekend with her family, and part of it at a gala that would benefit the pregnancy center.
“We spent less than three days together before he flew back to Texas,” Megan said. “But I knew after the weekend was over that he was the one God made for me.” Michael thought so, too, so from a distance, they continued to date. “That was a big struggle,” Megan said. “I just wanted to be near him.”
He wanted that, too. “I longed for her to be my wife,” he said. “We stuck it out and saw each other as often as possible. We made it a priority to see each other at least once a month.”
During one of Megan’s trips to Texas – about eight months after she sent him an emotigram – he took her to Pedernales Falls near Austin on a rainy day. “I had no idea he was going to propose,” she said. But he did, and she said yes.
On Sept. 20, 2014, while her dad walked her down the aisle, she hoped it wasn’t a dream. While Michael watched her walk toward him, he thought about “how ready I was to be her husband, and to have her as my wife.”
Both now live in Texas, where they know their patience has paid off. “God has the right one out there for you,” Megan said. “He or she will come when you least expect it.”
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