How did you meet? What was your first date like? Give us all the details!
Paul: April 1, 2016 was the day that God had our lives intersect; it has and will be changing my life and direction in a way that I never saw coming. I was driving back to Ohio from California and was probably in New Mexico when I first received the ChristianMingle email from LeeAnna. I remember wanting to respond back as quickly as possible and waiting with eager anticipation for a response. I followed up with two more emails and even my phone number if she wanted to text because the ChristianMingle app would not notify me of new messages. I had to keep opening it up every so often to check on it.
LeeAnna: I remember seeing Paul’s profile and immediately seeing how long it was and in-depth and detail, which actually intrigued me to read it. But after I did and saw that he was a software developer too, I laughed out loud because it reminded me of me and how I initially wrote a super-long, in-depth profile that had many details in it, but later decided to shave it way down. Regardless, there was an immediate connection, so I emailed him, not knowing how drastically my life was about to change from that point forward. And drastically change, it did. Initially, I did not think he would even respond because he lived in Ohio and I lived in Michigan, but there was just something about him. On ChristianMingle, we had eight things in common, which was the highest number of things in common I had ever come across on the site, and 97% matched. Imagine that!

Since those first email conversations in the beginning of April, we talked every day multiple times by phone, text or video chat and never stopped. The first face-to-face meeting we had was in Michigan on April 22, 2016, and we spent our first moment together giving thanks to God, then talking, laughing and spending time together. And yes, we had our first kiss, too.

Describe the moment you knew it was true love!
Paul: I knew that there was a special connection that God had given us after about a week of talking via video chat. We would talk for hours (literally until 3am sometimes) and we had so many things that God had given us in common. We started to pray together over the phone. I could feel my love for LeeAnna overflowing in my heart. The distance between us actually allowed for us to spend time getting to know one another on a very deep level. It had only been a week, but I felt like I knew so much about her, and I could not get enough time with her.

LeeAnna: I knew that we had true love for each other on April 7th, when Paul and I shared how deeply we felt about each other. We both knew it was a short period of time to have known someone and yet still feel this strongly, but we also both knew our relationship was brought together by God. And if God is powerful enough to create all of creation in seven days, certainly He can bring two people together in a very deep, connected way. It really felt as if almost daily we were uncovering more and more things that we had in common, it was almost unbelievable! Yet it was happening, and so exciting. We met April 1, 2016 and were married on August 30, 2016.

What advice would you give other ChristianMingle members?
ChristianMingle gave us a safe place to meet other Christians with similar interests. Don’t give up! Trust God that He will draw you to the love of your life. Don’t fret about the fee! That small amount of money is nothing compared to a lifetime of love and happiness. Try not to limit yourself to a certain distance, you may need to open your mind up to possibilities, and things can work out! We met living in two different states and ended up married and living together in one state!

Did you find love online? Submit your story to share how you met your soulmate on ChristianMingle.