Our Story II: a team effort

Editor: See Part 1 of Our Story!

(Mary Clare writing) So, what finally prompted Dan to e-mail me? I like to say that our getting together was a team effort. We wound up together in a class on St. Thomas Aquinas, but that wasn't quite enough. We needed an assist from Our Lady.

Our class ended in December 2005, and at some point the following February, Dan's brother (and the best man), Dave, joined Ave Maria Singles. Dan decided to mess around on Dave's account and conduct his own search for Miss Right. I had joined Ave Maria--which provides lifetime membership--about a year and a half earlier, but had basically given up on the whole online thing. Well, in Dan's little search, my profile and picture came up. Of course, he recognized me as the girl from class that he didn't talk to. Figuring this was his second chance and maybe it was meant, he took my e-mail address from the class list and... I'll let him tell it (as excerpted from his e-mail of Feb. 20, 2006):

"I'm emailing because my older brother Dave just signed up with that Ave Maria Singles service, and after he looked around the site for a while I thought I'd do a little bit of searching of my own, and, mirabile dictu, I happened to come upon your profile (ok, so I guess I really should have made my own account first, but hey what can I say, I am just a poor grad student after all ;-) ). Anyway, I looked through your profile and saw a lot that I liked; I was thinking maybe we can get together sometime and talk."

So, after some deliberation on my part, I replied a few days later and we arranged to meet at 5pm Mass at Our Saviour (the Church where we're getting married) on February 26. We went for Starbucks afterwards and talked over hot chocolate. (Our conversation came easily. I told Dan on our fifth date that I felt so comfortable around him and we chatted so easily, it was like he was one of my brothers. I guess he didn't know how to take that...)

So, that's the story of Our Lady's assist. Of course that's only the beginning. More on dating and engagement to come... By the way, about Ave Maria Singles, I do recommend it overall. Dave did meet a girl on AMS a few months after Dan and I started out and they're still together. You can meet people on there who really share your faith, though the whole online process can be a little cold and some people tend to approach it selfishly or like a meat market. But if you've got the stomach for it...well...I guess, pray and see if that's how God wants you to (suffer to) meet your spouse... It's in His hands ultimately and we really can't force the issue.