Epistemis,
I dont know if my story will help you solve your problem but maybe it will give you hope. I posted it on another thread and am reposting it here. May God Bless you and the young lady.
My story begins with my two son’s. I was divorced in 1992 when the boys were 10 and 12 years old and I had joint custody with their mom who fortunately lived close by. I promised myself right then and there that I would not be involved with anything that would take time away from them. That included being involved with anyone that would take up their time. I guess we had the normal, if you could call anything normal with two growing boy’s, father-son relationship. Camping, fishing, hunting, school activities, ball games, and all sports. I never missed any of the things my boy’s were involved in, not one, and I enjoyed each and every second of it. So many fantastic memories. Well time goes by, and boy did it go by quickly, they grew up, graduated, and started a life of their own. I guess that before I go any further I should tell you that I have a very deep devoted loving relationship with the Blessed Mother. I went through some very, very tough and agonizing times over several years and had no one to turn to except for my biological mom and her. Without her and the rosary I would not have made it through. So she truly became my mother during these times. With the boy’s grown I started to think about time for me, my life, and my future. I prayed to God and the rosary that He send me someone and not just anyone. If He could not send me the best then living single the rest of my life would be fine with me. I lived in the country and was a fifth generation cattleman in an area in Texas in the bible belt where catholics were a rare and endangered species. So Protestant ladies were the only choice I had. Not that they were not nice. The few that I had a date with was just that, a date, one date.They were good ladies but God showed me pretty quick that a mixed marriage just would not work with me. My devotion to my religion was too strong. Also moving out of the area was not an option. My roots where I grew up were strong and deep and all of my friends and family were there. So as I was going through the Internet one night I came across Saint Rafael’s sight for single catholics. Now I was very apprehensive of anything on the Internet that had to do with meeting someone. I guess I grew up in an area where someone on the Internet would be a scandal if not laughable. In their eye’s I might as well get a mail order bride. But I kept coming back to the St. Raphael web sight. Every lady on there lived at least a hundred miles from me and as I said I had no intention of moving. One May night I received a message from a lady that only said “I like horses too.” I had put in my profile that being a cowboy I had to ride every day to check my cattle. I looked at her profile and see caught my eye. A beautiful red headed lady that had a lot of things in common with me and had a lot of the same interest. Only one drawback, well maybe two, she lived 800 miles away in Georgia and she was a transplant from the north. A true blue “Yankee”. Not only did she talk a foreign language(Yankeebolics) but she also thought that the North had won the war. I thought “no way.” I don’t think I responded to her right off but for some reason I kept coming back. Little did I know that God was leading me into something that would change my life forever. Finally one night I thought what the heck. It might be nice to have someone to talk to over the Internet because we had a lot of the same interest and thought alike. So I sent her a message something to the effect that I rode every day and enjoyed it very much. To my surprise she responded back. We messaged back and forth and after a while I asked for permission to call her. We had our first meeting in July. I went to visit her in Georgia and after that I was hooked on this red headed lady. I was truly in love with not only someone who truly loved me. But she was hesitant because she had been hurt in the past. She kept saying “I need a sign from God.” I guess she wanted the heavens to open up and hear the choir of angels singing. But I kept reminding her of all the little signs that were to obvious to be coincidences. I really felt God leading me to this lady. So many times in the past I had not really listened to God and did what I wanted to. This time I was listening carefully and I knew it was Him working in my life. Finally I convinced her that God had brought us together and that it was His will for us to spend our life together. I proposed to her in St. Raphael’s chapel in Dallas Texas. Not a coincidence since St. Raphael had brought us together. We were married in September. That was in 2003, 7 years ago, and our life has been blessed ever since. I thank God each and every night for my angel he sent me. Oh and by the way that part I said about never leaving Texas…forget that. We live in Georgia close to her family and ride our horses every weekend together.
