Our Story

We met online on ChristianSinglesDating.com in February of 2004. It was a radical way to meet someone back then, but I think public opinion has come  around and it has become popular. I remember people saying, “Aren’t you afraid you will meet a creep like that? You don’t know anything about them.” Well truly, unless you are introduced by a mutual friend, you don’t know anything about a date no matter how you meet them.  For some reason, the online method presented some sort of threat in the minds of some,  and it seemed a way to meet undesirable prospective mates. I used to reply that I knew a lot of people who met someone face to face and they are divorced now.

I (Mary Ann) happen to think it’s the best way to meet someone for a long term relationship.

  • You get to know a lot more about someone when they write their thoughts and feelings.
  • You can pare down on the physical as part of the attraction process and concentrate more on what is really important, (although video chatting probably has cleared that hurdle today).
  • Browsing profiles lets you know a lot about a person before you accept a contact request.

Now here’s the kicker. When we met, I lived in Indiana and Jeff lived in Florida. I didn’t think our texting and emailing would transpire into love and marriage, so when I got a message on the Christian Singles Dating site with the subject “Hi From Florida” I did an eyeroll and thought, “Right, OK. Sure, why not?”  Soon I saw how wrong I could be. Living almost 1000 miles away did nothing to dilute the character of the man I was communicating with.  Love did happen.  We had much to overcome with our distance barriers. I had kids, he had kids. I had an 18 year old, a 14 year old and a 7 year old. His kids were 23, 20, 17 and 11. “It’s complicated” sums it up. But when God brings two people together – when God does a lot of things – everything  doesn’t necessarily make sense.

The love was the easy part. The situation, not so much. There were struggles and challenges and there were times when it seemed like we were all alone together. God brought us through. A lot. And still to this day, He is our Rock. We fought the uphill battles, and trusted and prayed and here we are still together anyway.

There’s a lot more to Our Story than I could write today.

Mary Ann

I am a child of God first, a wife, mom, grandmom and pet owner. I am a Storyteller. I have a business, Sunshower, LLC. I live in northeast Florida and also in northwest Indiana because two of my three daughters and two grandchildren live there. I believe passionately that it is important to Tell Your Story and I find the best way is in a scrapbook.  I also like to tell my story in my Flowchart blog.

Some of the other things I enjoy are adventures, church, quality family time, dining out, (not necessarily fancy-the “out” is more important than the dining!), frappuccinos, shopping, beaches and just fun.

Here are the links to my other blogs, the ones not on this site.

Flowchart

Good-For-You Scrapbooking

SunshowerU, Mary Ann’s Business  Blog