In June of 2017, Mary Lauren sent her initial message to her now-husband Peter while he was deployed to Syria, telling him that she was praying for his safety.
Though her friends had encouraged her to try CatholicMatch during college several years previously, Mary Lauren had resisted, hoping to meet a Catholic man in person in her area. But in May of 2017, after having little luck locally, she enlisted a few friends to help her set up a profile.
Even on CatholicMatch, she found only a few matches nearby her hometown in Florida. She progressively expanded her search radius until she came across Peter’s profile, about a month after joining.
Her mom told her to look for this in a future spouse...
She was struck because, in her words, in addition to being physically attractive, “his profile was the only one I came across that really made me laugh. He was very charming. And my mom always said to find a man with a good sense of humor!”
At the time he received her message, Peter had been a CatholicMatch member for roughly a year. While he too had initially felt reluctant to try online dating, he ultimately signed up “because I had become so committed to finding a partner with a similar faith.” After several first dates that didn’t lead to anything further, and especially after he deployed in February of 2017, Peter’s interaction with CatholicMatch had waned. But, after Mary Lauren sent that first message, he viewed her profile and was hooked right away by her pictures!
He didn’t know when they’d be able to meet in person.
Peter was upfront with Mary Lauren from the start regarding his uncertainty about how long he’d be deployed and consequently when they could meet in person. They messaged back and forth several times each week in the interim. He returned stateside in September, and in November he made the 12-hour drive from his base in North Carolina to her home in Florida.
Both felt an immediate connection that weekend, and after several more visits, they officially became boyfriend and girlfriend in December of 2017.
It was a time for some soul-searching...
The conversation had flowed freely and easily during their in-person visits over Christmas, New Year’s, and more, and the couple had rapidly grown closer together such that Mary Lauren was stunned when Peter broke off the relationship in February of 2018. He explained, “I had never wanted to do long-distance dating,” and what’s more the seriousness of their relationship “made me realize that I [previously] thought I was ready for marriage, but maybe I wasn’t. It became too real for me. I needed to realize what it means to be married, practically, spiritually, and so on.”
But, even after they broke up, Peter continued to feel unsettled. Over the next few months, a period of real soul-searching ensued, with minimal contact between the two.
Then, they were finally together again!
After much prayer and discernment that summer, Peter knew he wanted to resume the relationship. Recalling that Mary Lauren had previously expressed her desire to attend a military ball, he invited her to attend one with him. While Mary Lauren agreed to go with him, she also still felt very hurt and decided to keep her expectations of the event low, presuming that she would never see him again afterward.
But after that September ball, Peter “recognized that I was going to marry her.” Knowing that they wanted to move forward and also that he needed to earn back her trust, the couple worked on slowly establishing a deep friendship before formalizing their relationship again.
The proposal was ‘’more perfect than I could have ever imagined!”
Around Easter in 2019, Peter asked Mary Lauren’s parents’ permission to propose. He received it, along with her grandmother’s engagement ring, which he knew she’d been hoping for. Mary Lauren recalled the details of the proposal she called “more perfect than I could have ever imagined!”
She said, “While we were separated, I went to my church frequently to pray and find direction in my life. I remembered my mom telling me that while she was single, she said a prayer asking God to help her find her future spouse. Within a month, she met my dad. I decided to make my own prayer asking for help in finding a spouse. After Peter and I began spending time together again, I shared my prayer with him.
On the day of the proposal, “Peter took me to my church, claiming that we were just there to go to confession. He sat down with me at the same outside prayer area where I first spoke to God about finding a spouse. After praying together, he got quiet. He looked at me and began reciting my entire prayer [which she had previously shared with him] back to me. Then he got down on one knee, and pulled out my grandmother’s engagement ring.”
Then, they were married 3 months later...
Because Mary Lauren herself was joining the Army later that summer, she and Peter requested- and received- a special exemption from her diocese to shorten the length of their engagement from the typical six-month requirement to about three months. They were married on August 3rd, 2019, at the same parish Mary Lauren had grown up in and where Peter had proposed. The couple was blessed to have their Nuptial Mass co-celebrated by both Mary Lauren’s lifelong pastor as well as a family friend of Peter’s, who was an Archbishop in Nigeria!
Now, they are so grateful that CatholicMatch brought them together!
With multiple moves, separations due to being in the military, starting school, and the birth of their daughter, Annie, behind them in their first few years of marriage, Peter and Mary Lauren are both grateful to be together doing life in person on a day-to-day basis.
They fully credit CatholicMatch with bringing them together. Asked what advice they’d offer other singles considering signing up, Mary Lauren cited its proven track record in her personal experience. Besides her own marriage, two of her friends have met their spouses on CatholicMatch as well. She advised, “Just start by making a profile and browsing other singles. Enlist the help of family members or friends when writing your profile. It can actually be a lot of fun! Then try out a membership for several months. You never know what will happen!”
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