Nathan:

When college was over, I wasn’t really meeting the right women in my church and city, so in December of 2009, I started a profile on ChristianMingle.  I was looking for a woman to be my wife. A couple days before Valentine’s Day in 2010, I noticed a picture of a cute brunette from Glen Ellyn, IL. She caught my eye, so late that night I sent her a Smile saying “I’d like to get to know you better, what do you think?” She responded the next afternoon with “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” It was a nice response, but I didn’t really know how true that response would be until she became my best friend and we were married about a year after we met online!

We sent smiles back and forth, but I really wanted to talk to her! I sent 7 smiles and 3 emails over the next 3 weeks. One of the smiles said, “In case you’re not a subscriber yet, I hope you become one soon!” I was a paying member and she wasn’t a paying member yet, so we couldn’t communicate. I wasn’t quite sure why she was hesitant to join. She was a mysterious girl only because she didn’t have that much on her profile, but enough to intrigue me. She was the same denomination, didn’t smoke or drink, listed the same interests that I had, and she was cute looking on her profile. After searching an etymology on her profile name, I found that it was a Ukrainian word.  Seeing her favorite vacation listed as Ukraine on her profile, I realized she must be Ukrainian, and I was right! She told me that her profile name meant ‘star.’ I soon realized that I had finally found my Star!

After meeting on ChristianMingle, and texting for two days, we talked on the phone every day and I could finally hear her cute voice and Ukrainian accent! We video chatted for a week before we met each other in person. I had never met anyone online before, so meeting someone in person from the internet seemed weird, but worth it. Before I drove to see her, I began to think if this was a mistake, or if I was seeing my future wife. I had gotten to know her very well in the past 3 weeks, so I knew we clicked! She was worth the 80 mile drive. We decided to meet on a Sunday afternoon in her city. The first time I saw her was in a parking lot in Illinois. We had lunch, went ice skating, took a walk in the park, and had coffee before we went home. It was DEFINITELY worth the trip. We visited each other’s city every weekend after.

Galina:

I was on ChristianMingle for a while and not much was happening there until a cute boy from Wisconsin named Nate smiled at me. When I first saw his profile, I thought he wasn’t real. He looked too cute to be true, and his profile said all the right things that I wanted in a person.  I responded to him with a Smile, and kept Smiling at him for 3 weeks because I was skeptical.  I prayed to God for a sign to see if he was really worth the monthly fee. On the first Saturday in March, I went online and said to God, “If he’s online and wants to talk, I’ll sign up”. Well, he instant messaged me right when I signed on, and I signed up right away to chat with him! We chatted online for an hour and exchanged numbers. We’ve been talking every day since! When I signed up that morning, I saw his Compass request, and he wanted to see my answers. When we were chatting online, I was looking with amazement at how close all of our answers were. We were nearly a perfect match! Those in-depth questions really got me to quickly know him well.

I was dating Nathan for 6 months before he proposed to me. He proposed at a campfire by the lake, with fireworks and a big sign that he made that lit up on a raft saying “Galina, Will You Marry Me?” I knew he would propose, but not with so much of a surprise! He made me feel like the most special girl in the world and I said YES! We were married 6 months later on April 9, 2011. I thank God that He answered our prayers and we found each other through ChristianMingle! Without it, we would have never met.

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