Matt's biggest concern was finding someone who wouldn't reject him for his past mistakes and who would allow him to explain his side.
Matt (36) and Carissa (38), both from the Kanas City, Missouri, area, began messaging each other on CatholicMatch. After their first phone conversation, the couple decided to say a prayer for one another every day at 5:00 pm.
From then on out, even when things got difficult, they continued to pray for each other daily at that hour!
A clean slate!
Matt had struggled a long time to let go of the hurt and disappointment caused by the divorce. Mercifully, the annulment process had offered him plenty of healing.
"The annulment process helped me get a better understanding of the events that took place. It also helped to close the wounds and give me hope for a brighter future."
Receiving an annulment also gave Matt the clean slate he needed to begin a romantic relationship with Carissa.
They met for their first date...
After messaging extensively for six days, they had their first date on January 5, 2019. They had so much fun that the date ended up lasting nine hours. Three days earlier, Carissa had finished saying The Holy Cloak of St. Joseph Novena, and she thought Matt could be the answer to her many prayers!
"We met and rode the city's streetcar, visited a museum showcasing a steamboat wreck, and enjoyed dinner at an upscale restaurant. Then we sat for hours, talking and watching everyone at Union Station," she shares.
At the end of the date, Matt surprised Carissa by pulling out a card from his glove box. In the card, he thanked her for taking a chance on him. He also included a prayer asking God to show them His will.
The couple hit it off so well; they decided to meet the next day after Mass. Matt showed her his work, and they had a leisurely dinner. Matt and Carissa parted, after ten hours, excited about what the future might hold for them.
Carissa felt this was the relationship she'd been waiting for because she and Matt seemed to get along so easily.
Meeting her family!
Matt also hit it off with Carissa's family. He attended Carissa's family reunion where he met most of her family, and he saw where she spent her summers. Matt especially made a good impression on Carissa's five-year-old niece.
"After getting to know Matt, my little niece informed me she would be marrying him. She took it like a champ when we explained a few months later that I would be the bride. We told her we'd like to have her be a flower girl," she remembers.
Engagement after six months...
To set the stage for proposing to Carissa, Matt tried to recreate their first date, but with some added pampering.
"He showed up at my house with breakfast from one of my favorite restaurants, surprised me with a manicure, flowers, and a picnic. He even had tickets to our favorite music venue. We also had dinner at the same upscale restaurant where we had our first date. Then we sat and chatted in the same spot from our first date in Union Station."
Matt surprised Carissa with a memory book of pictures and mementos from their relationship, and then he proposed on one knee. Like Matt had done on their first date, he had a card and another homemade prayer in the glove box. This time he also had a wedding magazine waiting for Carissa.
Then, a six-month engagement!
"Our engagement months flew by so quickly! Matt helped in all of the wedding planning—he wanted my stress level to be as low as possible," she shares. "Along with planning our wedding, we purchased and remodeled a house that Matt lived in during our engagement. We also sold Matt's previous house, met each other's huge families in multiple states, and had a beautiful betrothal ceremony."
Matt and Carissa said their vows on December 29, 2019. "One of my favorite memories was with the photographer trying to take our picture in an open tower," Carissa recalls. "It was 20 stories high, and the temp was 5-degrees before wind chill. We had to act like it was warm outside, but our lips told the truth by turning blue!"
The couple shares the best part of being married is having a best friend waiting for you at the end of the workday.
