Michelle and Steve met in person for the first time in March of 2018. A couple of months prior, a friend from Michelle’s church had encouraged her to get on the dating site CatholicMatch. Steve had been on and off of CatholicMatch for years but hadn’t experienced much luck finding someone he was really connecting with around the St. Louis area where he lives. Eventually he expanded his search to areas outside of St. Louis. After just a couple weeks of Michelle being on the site, Steve messaged her and they had an instant connection!

Steve and Michelle were both so surprised at how much they had in common, and about how effortless and fun it was getting to know one another. Eventually Steve asked Michelle if he could come to Indiana to meet her for the first time. They had a wonderful first date together experiencing fun things in Louisville, Kentucky near Michelle’s southern Indiana home. It was so hard when they had to say goodbye after such an amazing weekend, knowing that it would be a few weeks before they could see each other again.

Michelle and Steve continued to see each other for months after their initial first date. Despite how much fun they had on their weekend visits when they were able to travel to see one another, long distance dating proved to be too difficult and eventually they had to make the tough decision to just remain close friends for a period of time. During this time Michelle couldn’t keep from thinking about how much she wanted to have a relationship with Steve where they could see each other as much as they wanted to. Michelle realized that she could easily relocate due to having a job in healthcare and she decided, after much praying, that she would take a leap of faith and move to St. Louis so that she could be closer to Steve. After she moved, Steve and Michelle picked up right where they left off, and were so happy to be able to get to know each other better by experiencing fun things around the St. Louis area together.

Steve and Michelle spent the warmer months hiking, going on bike rides (with Michelle's six pound yorkie in her own little basket), kayaking, enjoying long walks around a nearby lake, and spending countless hours chatting outside on Michelle’s apartment balcony. In the winter months they loved ice skating, enjoying every bit of the wonderful Christmas season together, and staying in to binge watch their favorite shows. They connected over their love of stand up comedy getting to go on dates to see Jim Gaffigan, Rob Schneider, and Jerry Seinfeld. They also enjoyed many fun nights going out to listen to live music and to dance.

Steve and Michelle grew closer with each year they dated and in March of 2024 Steve surprised Michelle one evening when she came to his house expecting to just relax after a long day at work and finding him down on one knee with half of his house adorned with candles. Steve and Michelle were both so happy at that moment knowing that they would finally be moving forward towards a long-held dream of sharing their life together! They are excited to think about what the next chapter in their life will hold, and continually feel so blessed and thankful that God brought them together!