Kathleen and I met on ChristianMingle in August of 2011. One of the first things I noticed was that in one of the pictures on her ChristianMingle profile, Kathleen was standing in front of a bookcase. I speculated that the photo was taken in a church library and also inferred that if I was correct about her picture, this could mean that she was an involved church member and growing in her faith relationship with Jesus Christ.
For our first in person date, we met at a coffee shop on Labor Day of 2011. It was then that I asked Kathleen about the picture that caught my attention. I was correct, her picture was in front of a church library book shelf. She also was seeking a relationship centered on growing in love together through Jesus Christ! We enjoyed each other’s company, getting to know one another for about 2.5 hours that day.
We proceeded to go on dates during the month of September 2011. In early October, Kathleen decided that she just wanted to be friends with me. Disappointed, I accepted and would casually go on sporadic hang-out dates a few times over the next seven months. Over that time frame, Kathleen admitted that she wanted to date seriously again but that she had made a mistake breaking our initial courtship. At this time, I had changed my mind and also only wanted to be friends with Kathleen. However, after Easter in April of 2012, my heart changed for her as I realized that we had very much in common with past experiences and we both wanted the same things out of a relationship.
As I got to know her family and more about Kathleen’s personality and values for parenting, family involvement, and her love for my family, I determined by summer of 2012 that she was the one that for me. On Thanksgiving of 2012, I proposed to Kathleen with her immediate family present.
Kathleen was totally surprised and was in awe. Both of our families are so happy for us because God is giving us this opportunity to share our lives together! We will be getting married on September 14, 2013 with about 200 family and friends present.