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| Featured Resource |
 Fulton Sheen on Love and Marriage
17 talks on various topics related to Love and Marriage given by Archbishop Sheen. This superb teacher of the Faith addresses such themes as Dating and Courtship, Faithfulness in Marriage, Raising Children and more. Get it now! |
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| Lacey
& Christopher: Yankee boy meets Southern girl |
| Chapter
1: "You'll know when God sends you His peace." |
| Someone told me once in reference to knowing God's will for your life that, "You'll know when God sends you His Peace." I first joined Ave Maria singles in May of 2002 taking the advice of a priest I had talked to. I had told him how hard it was to find a good Catholic girl that loved the Church and it's teachings. But I also had other criteria that made things harder. I am a farmer and need to have a wife who could understand and really love the lifestyle that I live. So I began with a search on Ave Maria and sorted through many profiles. I wrote to several people in the proceeding months and for various reasons things just didn't work out. I had not found that sense of peace that I had been told I'd find when God had me where He wanted me.
Then after two months short of a year being on Ave Maria, I noticed Lacey's profile. There were many things I liked about it that were similar to mine. The most important things were that she loved the Church and it's teachings, she came from and wanted a big family, and she was a country girl and loved the outdoors. Her words in her profile said that she was most comfortable being, "...among the haybales and the fields." There was no doubt, I had to write her. But that wasn't all, she was very beautiful as well.
We began to write and so many things just fell into place. So many of the things that seemed like barriers that I encountered in other relationships due to my occupation became as nothing with her or just never were there to begin with. We seemed to communicate so well in writing, and then on the phone, that I asked to come and visit. I was really excited yet cautious with my heart, because I had several times visited others and it didn't work out.
The drive was long, 14 hours to southwest Missouri from western NY. So as promised I called her from my hotel room when I arrived. She informed me that the neighbors cattle had gotten out and were all around her house trampling through her yard so it might be a little bit before we could meet! So we decided to meet in a McDonalds parking lot nearby. We still laugh at "how romantic" it was. But as soon as I saw her pull up in her car, something told me that this was no joke. After that first meeting I had such a feeling that she was the right one. I knew we had many things to discuss and to find out about each other before we both really knew, but yet I had a great sense of peace about being with her, and it grew stronger with every day.
That weekend when we met was wonderful. It did take a little while for us to make the transition from writing and talking on the phone to actually being with each other, but it wasn't hard at all. The seeds of our relationship that were first planted when we joined Ave Maria Singles, now seemed to grow just beautifully. Lacey and I had so much fun that weekend, going to an amusement park, touring a cave at the park, and visiting some of the other local attractions in her area. Also I met Lacey's closest relatives and they all were so nice to me. Lacey was just wonderful. She was so lady like, yet kind and friendly. I could tell that she was everything she said she was in her profile on Ave Maria. My heart was opened by our writing each other on Ave Maria, but it was led into love when I met her in person that blessed and wonderful weekend.
Sunday morning we went to Mass together with her family to Lacey's little country parish. It reminded me of the old and beautiful country parishes in the area around me. I really loved the quiet rural area where she lived and the beautiful hills and countryside that she had the pleasure of growing up in that I had heard so much about. When the time came, it was hard for me to leave, especially to leave Lacey. The morning that I left was difficult. I knew I had found the woman God made for me, and I had to leave her. I was glad I had a photo of her that was taken at the amusement park to look at during the 15 hour drive home to NY. At this point, I was more sure about our relationship than Lacey was, mostly because I had the advantage of knowing more about her by visiting. She had yet to see me in my surroundings. We agreed we had to see each other again, and began to make plans when Lacey could come up and visit my home in NY. We kept talking on the phone every night, often for hours. We also kept sending letters to each other on Ave Maria, just to send each other little suprises and notes. I thank God for the grace to have met such a wonderful woman as Lacey, and I thank this service for being the medium through which we met.
Christopher |
| Chapter
2: How Chris and I first met. |
| First, I want to tell all the single people out there who are using this site, hoping to meet someone special or wondering if AMS is for them, to take heart... God led me to this site in an indirect way but when I got my first letter from Chris it was like my own special billboard from God, "Here is the man you have been waiting for!" with profile and credentials attatched. Dont give up! I can't tell you how special this site is! There is someone special on this site waiting for you!What miracles happen when you decide to put your trust in God and open the door to your heart! It works! Chris and I are living examples of Love, Trust, Loyalty, Peace, Patience, Preserverence, and everything and more than you could ever imagine!
Our courtship has been quite the whirlwind! Literally...We began in March of 2003 and that month along with our relationship definitly came in like a lion. Chris wrote to me within 4 hours of my membership on AMS. We wrote long letter several times a day for a week until Chris asked to call me. I still remember that first phone call like it was yesterday.
Our relationship developed very quickly. Chris came to see me for the first time the last weekend in April. I was so struck by him and how he was and looked that I just couldnt look at him. And blushed red almost the whole time. I so enjoyed his visit.
The weekend just after I met Chris a tornado that ripped through the Midwest took my home. My parents, myself, and my little brother were all home and we were lucky to be alive. We survived a tornado that destroyed an entire city before it hit my home just a few miles into the country. Our home was gone and we crawled out of the rubble. The entire country side as far as we could see looked like a war zone. Like someone had dropped a bomb. Everything was gone. All the trees were gone. All the buildings. Chris called me just an hour after the disaster. To this day I dont know how the phone still worked in a house without a roof that had didnt have 4 walls. In my shock I dont even think I said hello. I didnt have any clue who would call at such a time. But Chris brought peace into the middle of a nightmare.
We have begun to rebuild and our scars are all healing. Mine especially due to Chris. I dont know how I could have stayed sane without his calm and gentle reassurance of faith, security, and love.
Lacey |
| Chapter
3: Southern girl goes North! |
| Lacey and I made plans to see each other again. This time she came up north to NY. It was so nice to see her again, but so much had happened to her since our first meeting. It was only a week after I left Missouri that a devastating tornado destroyed Lacey's house. I was so thankful that Lacey, her Mom, Dad and brother were unhurt, but they had lived through a terrible disaster. They had lost so much, and it was hard for them. So to see her after the tornado was really a miracle. I guess you could say that for me, Lacey herself was the real miracle.
We had a lot of fun together that weekend Lacey came up. We saw Niagara Falls, beautiful canyons and waterfalls in Letchworth State Park, and Lacey met my parents and some of my family. I also showed Lacey my fields where I grow my crops, although it was early and things were just sprouting. At the end of her time in NY we went to an amusement park in the area. It was there that I asked her if she would be more than just a friend. I asked her to be my girlfriend, and gave her my high school ring. You could say that at that point, I really was close to heaven, for one because she took the ring, but also because we were at the top of a ferris wheel! I had been truly blessed with Lacey coming to visit. There was one hard part about that weekend though, it was saying goodbye to Lacey at the airport.
Christopher |
| Chapter
4: I knew she was made especially for me. |
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The summer is my busy season on the farm so it's hard for me to get away, so after Lacey's first visit, we had to wait another month and a half before she could come up again. This time Lacey was able to take off from her work and stayed for a month. I think that was one of the most wonderful months of my life. We really got to know each other better. Lacey helped me on the farm and my parents on there farm too. She was able to see first hand a slice of my life for more than just a few days. We grew together in love, and really talked about many important things that we wanted and needed in our lives. Lacey and I seemed made for each other. Many times two people go out for months and really don't get to know each other well. In our case, we had the advantage of knowing before hand our most treasured beliefs due to our profiles on Ave Maria Singles. Also, the distance between being a physical barrier really forced us to talk and write what was on our hearts and minds. We had no other way to express ourselves to each other. Due to all this plus the fact that we grew so much and closer than ever during her visit in the summer, I knew what God wanted me to do, and I wanted the same thing! I wanted with all my heart to be with Lacey my whole life long.
On August 9th, 2003 I asked Lacey to marry me. She said yes!!! I was so happy! I was truly aware of the tremendous gift God had bestowed on me, the gift of a loving, caring, holy and beautiful woman to be my wife. Now, I was closer to Heaven than ever before. Lacey and I prayed the Rosary together before the Blessed Sacrament in thanksgiving and for continued blessings and grace.
Christopher |
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