I was 17 years old when I gave my life to Jesus and kissed dating good-bye. I knew what I was looking for, and I trusted God would introduce me to my wife when the time was right. I just didn’t think it would take six years.  I also never imagined it would happen through a dating site.

I remember having an internal conversation with God, shortly after graduating from Penn State University in May 2012. I was sitting on my couch and I said to Him out loud, “I think I’m ready for a wife.” I felt a gentle reply in my heart, “I think you are too.” I replied sharply with, “Six years and I haven’t met her yet. There are over 20,000 girls at Penn State and she’s not here?” It wasn’t a second later that a ChristianMingle commercial appeared on the television. I smiled and said, “Yeah right.”

Three months later on July 31, 2012, I found her. First, I saw her beautiful picture. Next, I noticed her love for Jesus. Then I saw her passions of soccer, theatre, movies, adventures, and her competitive nature challenging all prospects to a one-on-one soccer match. At the very least, I had to speak with her. I sent her a message and the next night we talked on the phone for three hours! We continued talking on the phone every night for a week, before I realized talking wouldn’t be enough. We needed to meet to see if it could really go somewhere. No need in dragging it out. The problem was that she lived in Destin, Florida and I was in State College, Pennsylvania. When my pastor told me she could stay at his house for four days so we could meet, I bought her a plane ticket. Three weeks after we talked on the phone, we met in person. There were definitely fireworks.

The second she left we began planning how she could come back. Ironically, Aly was taking the summer to weigh out her options, so her schedule and life was incredibly flexible. My pastor and his family offered to let her live in their home for two months until we could arrange something else. Three weeks after she left, she was back to stay. We got engaged on December 29, 2012, and were married four months later on April 28th. God has someone special for all of us, and in my case ChristianMingle was simply the catalyst to finding her. We couldn’t be happier.