Megan felt frustrated with online dating because it didn’t feel natural to her. “I felt like I was shopping through a catalog,” says Megan, 26, from Pennsylvania. “I also had a few bad experiences previously with online dating, so I was very skeptical of the whole process.”
Megan would feel herself getting discouraged with online dating when things didn’t turn out as she had anticipated, but she kept telling herself, “It will happen in God’s time not mine, and that I need to be patient.” She also took comfort in a saying her grandfather always said, “What is meant for you won’t miss you.”
Finding the one wasn’t a quick process for her
For a span of three years, Megan was a member on and off. She found that for her it was good to take a break from the site when the suspense of finding the “one” was too overwhelming.
Luckily, she was an active member when Jim, 26, joined. “After debating whether to buy a CatholicMatch subscription or not, I decided to try one month and see how it went monthly,” she shares.
Jim had only been on the site for a couple of months when he noticed that Megan had viewed his profile.
“He had just returned from Army training, and I had just finished teaching for the school year. We both happened to get back on the site within the same couple of days after taking some time off,” she recalls. “We still don’t know today how exactly we found each other on the site. We are both from Pennsylvania, but Jim’s location was set to Georgia where he was working at the time.”
Jim adds, “Megan’s [preferred] location was set to Pennsylvania, and she viewed my “Georgia” profile without knowing I grew up an hour away from her. Once she viewed my profile, I was sent a notification, and I discovered her town was only an hour away from my parents.”
Jim sent Megan a message, relating how he grew up close to where she lives. He mentioned how he had heard from his parents that there was a storm in the area. “I was just glad to have a conversation topic to add to the message to make my message seem less weird and more friendly,” he laughs.
Purple mini-van date
After just a month of messaging on CatholicMatch, texting, and talking on the phone, Megan and James met in person on July 19th, 2015. For their date, they attended Saturday vigil Mass and then went for ice cream and a movie. “After getting ice cream, we drove to a drive-in movie theater and watched a movie from the trunk of a mini-van,” she recalls.
Jim adds, “I knew she was a keeper when she didn’t mind that I drove the family purple mini-van to pick her up!”
What did their families think?
Jim and Megan share that both of their families were open to the idea of them meeting someone online, but
they were also a little wary.
“Both families believed that we had enough common sense to take a safe and cautious approach,” says the couple. “Once we met each other’s families, it became much more realistic to them. Also, explaining why we went online—to meet someone who shared our faith—helped them to understand why we choose this online dating site.”
Long distance, so worth it
Megan and Jim’s families didn’t pose a roadblock to their relationship, but the miles could have become an obstacle. “We were both from the same state and within an hour drive of each other, but at the time we meet online, I was serving in the Army in Texas and Megan was still back home in Pennsylvania,” he explains. ”Planning dates when we both had time off from work and maintaining and growing a new relationship from a distance was the biggest hurdle we experienced at first.”
Dealing with the distance was worth the effort for Megan because Jim was a man of strong morals and values as well as kindhearted and generous. She also appreciated that he came from a very loving and supporting family. “Jim portrayed his care and love for me from the start; I never doubted or worried what his feelings were towards me,” she says.
She brushed against the ring in his pocket
“The magic happened Memorial Day weekend 2016,” Jim remembers. He took Megan to a local state park in Texas to pop the question.
“My plan was to ask her alone on a trail somewhere at a scenic spot in the park,” he says.
They walked around the park in the morning which gave Jim the opportunity to scope out the perfect spot to propose. “But my plan was almost completely foiled while we were walking on a trail! Megan’s hand accidentally brushed too close to the pants pocket that I kept in the ring in and instinctively I swept her hand away making her suspicious.”
It turns out Megan was onto him before noticing that there was something in his pocket. She had already felt suspicious but wasn't quite sure if he was going to ask her.
“Finally, in the afternoon we came across a spot that was scenic for me to ask Megan,” he says. “I stalled her at the spot until there were no people around saying, ‘We should enjoy the scenery for a little bit’ and then I popped the question as soon as we were alone.”
They had only six months to plan the wedding because Jim wanted to be married before he deployed.
Icy wedding
Jim and Megan were married on December 16th, 2017 at St. Mary's of the Assumption in Pylesville, Maryland, during the only ice storm of the season. “The ice on the trees made everything look so beautiful!” she recalls. The couple enjoyed two months together before Jim left for Kuwait.
“Even though he is thousands of miles apart we are still as 'one.' When you truly love someone, the distance doesn’t matter. This quote says it all for me, 'When two hearts are meant for each other, no distance is too far, no time too long and no other love can break them apart.'”– Anon
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