When Angel joined CatholicMatch in September of 2016, it was a little overwhelming.
“You’re sifting through all these matches, putting out all these messages, and trying with members whose profiles seem interesting,” Angel, 36 and never married from Ohio, recalls.
During the first two weeks of being a CatholicMatch member, she sent Andrew, from Columbus, Ohio, a smiley face emoticon. They exchanged a couple of messages, but the conversation fizzled.
“He just wasn't as quick to respond as some other gentlemen on the site, so our conversation never really took off,” she says. “Then I started talking with another guy, and we met in person.”
What unread message do I have?
That relationship ended up not working out, so six months later, Angel was still looking for Mr. Right. She noticed in March of 2017 that she had an unread message.
“I thought, ‘Where is this unread message?’ Curious, I scrolled back and saw that it was a message from Andrew that I had lost track of. I read his message and then I went back to his profile. I was like, ‘How did I not respond to this guy?’ Everything about his profile was this on point.”
So, she took another shot.
Angel noticed that Andrew was still active on the site, so she sent him a message apologizing and explaining why it took her so long to respond. She told him that if he was still interested in chatting, she’d love to get to know him better.
“I expected that he wouldn’t answer or that he’d say that he was talking to someone,” she recalls.
Andrew was surprised to hear back from Angel.
“I’d written her off," says Andrew. "Like Angel, I had met someone earlier, but it didn’t work out.”
Andrew remembered her name because he was looking and praying for an angel. “When her name popped back up with the message, I thought it was God's timing,” says the never married 38-year-old.
And suddenly he was calling me...
Andrew answered her message, but again their messaging back and forth was slow to pick up speed. It took a phone call from Andrew to make their relationship take off.
“He had texted me the day before he called, but I never got it,” she says. “I was surprised when he called. My heart was beating rapidly. We really hit it off during that conversation, and then we texted quite a bit.”
Um, is that you?
Three weeks later, Angel and Andrew had plans to meet up in Columbus, Ohio, at Borders Bookstore that was in an outdoor shopping mall. When Angel arrived, she saw a guy sitting on a bench, but she wasn’t sure if he was Andrew.
“He was wearing sunglasses and sitting on the bench. I thought, “He's the only person around here that looks like he's not doing anything specific, so that has to be him,” she says laughing.
When Angel walked up to Andrew, he also didn’t recognize her right away. “Her hair was longer, and she looked thinner than she did in her photos.”
The couple walked around the outdoor shopping center and then went to dinner at an Italian restaurant. They were hitting it off so well that they walked some more and then went for dessert at the Cheesecake Factory.
He was a breath of fresh air.
Angel found Andrew to be a breath of fresh air. She felt amazed hearing him talk about his love for his faith and love for Jesus. Before joining CatholicMatch, Angel had dated non-Catholic men, and she realized that she wanted a husband who shared the same faith.
“It was refreshing to be able to be so open and on the same page about the Catholic faith.”
She also appreciated that Andrew was more advanced in his faith. In her previous relationships, Angel had always been the one further along spiritually.
It took a while to see a future together.
Even though Andrew and Angel liked each other, both of them felt guarded on their first date. “It wasn't until we started our Sunday dates with Mass and hikes that I started to feel fully attracted to Angel and to see a future,” he shares.
It took Angel even longer to let down her guard. “From previous bad relationships, I was very reluctant to let myself go even though I had a really good feeling about him.”
Since Andrew and Angel lived two-and-a-half hours apart, they would meet halfway on Sundays. “There are a lot of states parks halfway between us,” she explains.
His emergency surgery was a blessing in disguise.
Angel knew that she loved Andrew after a month of dating. Andrew had to have emergency surgery, and Angel drove up to be by his side during this hospital stay. “I felt worried, and I realized that I must care a lot about him to be this concerned,” she shares.
But Angel didn’t want to share with him how she felt. “I wanted to know how he felt first.”
Three weeks after Andrew got out of the hospital, Angel got her wish because he told her he loved her. “I didn't say it back until later in the day because I was really nervous, and I just wanted to absorb the moment,” she recalls. “He totally blindsided me.”
One year after they met...
On April 15th, 2018, on the one-year anniversary of their first date, Andrew had plans to propose, but he wasn’t exactly sure how he would pull it off.
“We had talked about marriage, and we had already picked out the rings so I knew it was coming, but I didn't want to know when,” she explains. “I had told him that I didn’t want a showy proposal.”
They met up with friends for the weekend and they all went to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. Andrew contemplated proposing underground, but he feared that he would drop the ring in one the caverns.
Angel kept wondering while they walked in the caves if this would be where he would propose. The next day, April 15th, they drove back to back to Ohio and went to Mass at Angel's parish.
I was so grumpy the day of the proposal!
After Mass was over, Andrew asks Angel, “Do you want to sit and pray for a little bit?”
“I'm like thinking in my head, “I just want to go get something to eat. I'm tired,” she recalls, “But I said to myself, ‘Angel, you don't say no to that!'”
Despite feeling "hangry," she said yes to Andrew.
“Unfortunately, I couldn’t let go of my frustration. Andrew offered me his arm but I pretended that I didn’t see him—I still feel bad about that—because I didn’t want to be there,” she remembers.
While we were sitting there, we could hear the monsignor talking about marriage preparation class with a woman. After a few minutes, Andrew asked Angel if she was ready to leave.
Andrew left the pew and genuflected towards the tabernacle and then Angel came out and genuflected. When she turned around Andrew was still down on his knee in the aisle!
“I was caught totally off guard,” she laughs. “I don't remember everything that he said, but I just remember him being so humble.”
Getting choked up, she adds, “I also remember him saying, “I love you. I'm going to fall short and this is going to be hard, but I want to do this with you.”
A new life...together.
On December 1st, 2018, the two were joined in Holy Matrimony. “I cannot really find the words to describe the graces we received from the wedding Mass,” Angel shares. “So many of our guests—many of whom were not Catholic—were moved by the ceremony.”
After the wedding, Andrew and Angel decided to make their home in Columbus—Andrew's home city. They say that marriage got real for them quickly especially because Andrew had to seek new employment and Angel was phasing out of her massage therapy practice, which meant 300 miles of driving every week.
"Marriage has been stripping away my selfishness," she says. "That's painful but it's a good thing."
