Catherine first noticed Joshua’s profile when they were matched in December 2018. She had joined CatholicMatch in October because there were no Catholic men in her area of Alberta, Canada. “So, I decided why not?” Catherine said. “I didn't really expect I would actually meet anyone."
Catherine found Joshua’s profile interesting, but she was already in the middle of a fairly serious conversation with someone else on CatholicMatch and had plans to meet up with him. Also, Joshua lived in Saskatchewan and Catherine was hoping to avoid a long-distance relationship if possible. So, she rejected the match.
“Amusingly enough, it turns out Joshua also rejected the match because he didn't like my profile picture!” Catherine said.
St. Joseph helped bring them together!
Three months later, in March 2019, after meeting a few more times with the other man she'd been talking to, Catherine decided they wouldn't be a good fit. She found herself questioning whether to continue on CatholicMatch. Catherine decided to do a novena to Saint Joseph leading up to his feast day that month, specifically for the intention of getting direction in finding a spouse. “Several days after completing the novena, Joshua liked my profile!” she said.
Joshua had also spent months chatting with someone else and meeting them a few times. When that relationship didn’t work out, he stumbled across Catherine’s profile again. He studied the rest of her profile more closely and decided to like it.
Catherine looked over Joshua's profile more carefully than before. “I thought it was really cute that he had listed he was passionate about his nieces, and he was a new helicopter pilot, which was pretty neat,” she remembered. After some research, she also realized that he only lived two hours away. She liked his profile back.
Joshua sent Catherine a message, but she said their initial conversation was “somewhat uninspiring.” Due to his work schedule, his messages were fairly short and to the point. “I confess I wrote him off almost immediately,” Catherine said. “I’m someone who tends to write essay-length letters, and his one-to-two-sentence messages did not bode well for a future relationship as far as I was concerned.” She kept chatting with him, but didn't have high hopes.
But, they planned a coffee date anyway...
After a couple of days, Joshua unexpectedly asked Catherine if she was willing to meet in person for coffee. She was startled, but keen to meet him. After several months of online communication with the previous person which led to nothing, she preferred to meet Joshua right away and skip any wasted time if it was clear they were not a good fit. Joshua felt the same, which was why he had suddenly suggested the idea.
On March 30th, less than a week after they started chatting online, they met in a town halfway between their homes. As they sat down for coffee and tea at a small restaurant, Catherine was pleasantly surprised. “He was so different in person than how he'd come across online!” she said. “He was warm, kind, funny, very earnest about his plans for the future, and we had a lot more in common than I'd initially realized.”
A few weeks later, they had a second date: a picnic at a lake near her town. She brought her parents to meet him. “I’d never introduced a guy to them before, but with Josh, it just felt right to do so, even though we weren't officially in a relationship yet,” Catherine said.
They broke a lot of first-date "rules"!
During the date, Catherine and Joshua talked about many deep and heavy subjects, and both agreed they were looking for marriage, not a casual relationship. They wanted to get all of the tough questions out of the way as early as possible. Joshua held Catherine’s hand for the first time that day.
Because of their physical distance and work commitments, Catherine and Joshua didn’t meet again until two months later. Catherine was set to be the maid of honor at her best friend’s wedding on May 4th. The night before the wedding, one of the groomsmen backed out, leaving an empty seat at the head table for the reception. Catherine and Joshua were still not officially a couple, but she asked if he would sit with her as her date at the wedding reception.
“And so, like a hero swooping in at the last minute to save the day, Josh made the four-hour drive to Red Deer to be my date at the wedding reception for a bride and groom he had never met, and sit at the head table in front of a room full of strangers,” Catherine recalled. “No pressure!”
She remembered how handsome he looked in his suit, and he helped her handle some of the reception games she was directing as maid of honor. As they slowly shuffled back and forth together on the dance floor to romantic music, Catherine realized she definitely wanted to date Joshua.
They chose to "make it work"...
One week later, Joshua drove to Catherine’s house and told her he'd been hired by a helicopter company that wanted to send him away on a work trip from May until October. As far as he knew, he'd be gone the entire time. Joshua was prepared to have Catherine say goodbye to him at that point, but she told him if he was willing to try and make their relationship work, so was she. That day, they officially became a couple.
Fortunately, Joshua wasn't away the entire time. He worked three-week shifts, then was back home in-between for around two weeks at a time. During his weeks off, Catherine met Joshua’s family—consisting of 10 siblings and 12 nieces and nephews. “I'm an only child, so the level of chaos was a lot to get used to at first, but they were very welcoming and I found myself feeling right at home among them,” Catherine said.
Throughout the summer, Joshua would spend the night at a local motel in Catherine’s town when he came to visit her. In the fall, he moved into an apartment complex in Red Deer. This made visits more convenient, but there was still a two-hour distance between them, which was challenging. Even so, the situation made them appreciate the time they spent together that much more.
Then, he planned a birthday proposal!
“By November, I was pretty sure he was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with,” Catherine said. “And in January 2020, the day before my birthday, he proposed to me. I was over the moon happy!”
The couple planned to have a big wedding in December 2020, but then the pandemic hit. “We somehow got through that spring in spite of not being able to see one another for large chunks of it,” Catherine said. As they planned their wedding, they also casually looked at houses online. “I was convinced we'd end up renting for the first few years and buy a house later on,” Catherine said. “But God had other plans for us.”
In July, they found a house for sale in a nice little community in Lacombe. It was reasonably priced and offered everything they wanted, including a basement suite into which Catherine’s parents could eventually move after retiring. Matters moved quickly, and to their amazement, by the end of July, they found themselves the owners of a new home with a possession date of August 24.
“We had no intention of moving in together before tying the knot, and with everything so up-in-the-air with the pandemic, we decided to change our original wedding plans,” Catherine said. They moved their wedding date to August 31st, with a much smaller number of people to accommodate Covid regulations.
"It was quite possibly the best decision we've ever made,” Catherine said. They enjoyed a beautiful morning ceremony at a new church, with just very close friends and family. In place of a reception, they served cupcakes and ice cream treats in the church parking lot. Then they drove off into the afternoon sun for a little honeymoon in the city before settling into their new home together.
They knew God's plan for them would be the best.
“To this day, I'm amazed at how everything fell into place for us, in spite of all the challenges of distance, his career, and the pandemic,” Catherine said. “God's plans really are incredible and more than we could ever imagine for ourselves.”
Catherine often turns to Joshua and wonders aloud what on Earth she did to end up with someone like him in her life. Joshua’s usual response always makes her smile: "You liked my profile on CatholicMatch.com!”
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