“I have found the one my soul loves.” (Song of Solomon 3:4) This passage is imprinted on the wall above our bed, and it certainly rings true for us. ChristianMingle was the vehicle which brought Carol and I together after searching for the one that our soul knew was meant for us.  Here is our story.

Carol was a widow for 20 years by the time we met.  I was a widower of 8 months.  At church one Sunday, a friend asked me how I was doing; I told her I was so very lonely after losing my first wife to cancer.  She told me I needed to give myself permission to be happy again, and to seek a wife I could share the rest of my life with.  She had lost her husband and met and married her current husband through ChristianMingle.  She encouraged me to go onto ChristianMingle as well.  After a while I was ready to do so.  I had conversed with — and met — several women, but none matched what I was looking for.  Carol said she had met “hundreds” of other men, but had never found the one she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. In fact, she was so frustrated with not finding the right one that she let her account expire.

I first saw Carol’s profile on ChristianMingle on April 2, 2014.  Her profile described the kind of woman I was seeking.  I had sent her several messages, but she did not respond because she was conversing with another man and her account was inactive.  She and the other man decided the distance between each other was too great a barrier to continue.  She saw my several messages and my profile and decided to open her account once again so she could find out whether I was as strong of a Christian as my profile stated.  She lived in Stockton, CA and I in Vacaville, CA (50 miles apart).  We began our relationship with messaging back and forth, getting to know each other.  Within the first week we decided to exchange emails with each other.  We found that emails and texts did not convey the full message, since you cannot detect sincerity, tone of voice, etc.  So, we decided to exchange phone numbers.  We talked multiple times throughout the day.  Many conversations lasted anywhere from 1 ½ hours to 2 ½ hours.  We played a game, of sorts, of taking turns asking questions about each other’s background, preferences and what we were looking for in a future mate.  We each had a “shopping list” that we had written prior to meeting one another.  By God’s wonderful design, each of us fit one another’s list to a “T.”

We decided to meet for the first time on April 17, 2014.  God had given me a vision in February of the woman He was going to bring to me.  After meeting Carol face-to-face, I knew she was the one in the vision.  Because she had met so many other men who said they were a Christian, and it turned out they were less than what they professed to be, she wanted to take it slow.  We continued to talk twice a day on the phone, reading devotions and praying together, and talking about our past and exploring each other’s personalities.  We attended each other’s churches and met each other’s family members.  We took drives together and talked constantly on the road.  With each encounter our love grew deeper for each other.

On July 4th, 2014, at the city park fireworks display, I had an airplane circle the park prior to the fireworks with a banner that stated, “Carol, will you marry me?”  When I heard the airplane approach I fell to my knee and read her a poem I had written her.  When she saw the banner she buried her head in her hands and wept happy tears.  She said, “Absolutely, yes!”

We were married in her church on December 6, 2014 and went on a two-week honeymoon to New Zealand.

Because of the distance between us, we would never have met one another if it were not for ChristianMingle.  Plus, I would never have joined the site though if it were not for the encouragement of a friend who found her husband on ChristianMingle.

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