How they met!

Who said that blogging is a waste of time? Not me! Well, at least not in this case! Indirectly, it was blogging, after all, that led my daughter to find the "Athanasius" of her dreams (even if she didn't giggle)!

If you are a longtime reader of the Bubble, you may remember that for the first couple of years I had the following written at the end of my greeting on the right sidebar: "For fun, I like to make matches between devout Catholic singles. I'll let you know when one of those matches works out."

True that I have not had much success (understatement) in my matchmaking endeavors over the past several years, but attentive readers may have noticed that my sidebar has changed to this: "One of those matches seems to be working out…."

Indeed! When I prayed to God to give me just one "big" match and I'd be satisfied, I never expected it to be my own child. Our Lord is delightful and surprising! And for fun, He allowed the Catholic blogosphere to be the means by which this couple found each other.

I began this blog in April 2010, and by the fall of of that year, some of my Catholic blogging peers had become good facebook and email friends as well, including the beautiful young Mary Mascarello who blogged at The Screllos (now private). I had never met Mary in person, but our email friendship was strong. That November, we were joking via email about the need for Mary to set up my daughter with a relative or someone she knew, so that we could be related. I told her my daughter's "type" and told her to get on it, ha ha. She did! She almost immediately remembered a young man she had just met at a Theology on Tap meeting, and my daughter can summarize from there:

My mom, the ever-aspiring matchmaker, has always wanted to find me a good Catholic man to marry. I will grant her partial credit for this victory. In fall 2010, she gave her friend, Mary, the task of finding my future husband. Mary, who lives in the midwest, said she had met a nice-looking young man at Theology on Tap. She told my mom about him and I received an odd text from my mother saying, “His name is Carter”. Then I received a phone call telling me she had found my future husband. So the facebook creeping commenced…. he was tall, dark, handsome, loved Augustine and Aquinas. Meanwhile Mary had told Carter about me. He sent me a facebook message right before he was off to the March for Life in D.C. and before I was headed abroad to study in Orvieto, Italy. 

The breathtaking duomo that crowns Orvieto was begun in the 13th century.
Very near to it is where St. Thomas Aquinas compiled his Catena Aurea.

He asked if he could write me letters. Of course I said yes. After all, what is more romantic than writing letters to a young man across the ocean from my room in a cobblestone, hilltop town? That’s right. Not much. On the first day of class, I received my first letter. The next day I spent a long time at the little paper shop down the street picking out the perfect stationery. We wrote letters back and forth across the ocean. I’d tell him about my Italian adventures and he’d tell me about the happenings in his life. We discussed literature, theology, our shared Catholic faith. When I came back to the states, we kept exchanging letters. 

Finally, he alluded to wanting to meet me. We decided to meet at a half-wayish point – at the University of Dallas, where my best friend went to school. Over my birthday weekend, eight months after we began writing letters and only a month after I had first heard his voice on the phone, I met the love of my life and future husband.

Fast forward to the proposal. By May 2012, Carter had moved to Arizona to be closer to my daughter, and we all knew it was just a matter of time before the lovebirds would be engaged. Again, I'll let my daughter take it from here:

On Christmas Day 2012, Carter was with his family in his hometown and I was with mine in Phoenix. After the Miller clan had opened an abundance of presents, Mom said she saw one last present behind the tree. To my surprise, there was a pretty all-white stocking with a white rose in it. There was no to/from tag, but inside the stocking was a small package. I opened it up to find the very first letters Carter had ever sent me. I was very, very confused because to my knowledge I had these letters in a special box down in a different town, where I was attending school. My mom played the fool and I called Carter, who pleaded ignorant. 

That night on my pillow I found another white rose and more letters. Over the next two days the white rose/letter combination kept appearing places… on my suitcase, in my shoes. Since no one would tell me what was going on, I dubbed this mysterious rose/letter giver the “Christmas gremlin”. On the 27th I left for Carter's hometown and apparently the gremlin had followed there, as the roses and letters continued! On the night of the 28th, I received the most recent letters Carter had sent me and I knew as I went to sleep that night that I would be engaged come the next day! (Well, that and the fact that when I had showed Carter a new lace dress my mom’s friend had given me, he told me I should “wear it tomorrow”.) 

Very early the next morning I awoke to a bed sprinkled in white rose petals and a new letter, which told me that it was snowing and to meet him in the backyard. Knowing what was about to happen, I naturally took about half an hour to 45 minutes getting ready. I walked downstairs and Carter was standing in the kitchen. He led me outside and guided me down the deck’s snow-covered steps (although it was not snowing!) to our favorite tree in the yard. And it was in this snowy winter wonderland that my future husband got down on one knee and asked for my hand in Holy Matrimony. And I said, “Of course!"

Yes, that is snow on his knee! No, she was not feeling the cold!

And there you have it! My passion for matchmaking and blogging has borne good fruit, thanks to the grace of a generous God (and the faithfulness of two great young people). Thank you for sharing in our joy as we prepare for the wedding which is fast approaching. Please keep this couple in your prayers, and let us pray for the strengthening of holy marriage in general, and the purity of young people. Despite the darkness and despair in this world, we must always be a people of great hope! God is an awesome God!

Engagement photos by Lexi Moody Photography