William & Claudia

I joined Ave Maria in 2003, after 6 years and one failed relationship with a woman I met on Ave Maria I started to give up hope that I would find a strong Catholic woman and be blessed with the sacrament of marriage.  As soon as I had given up hope of meeting someone on Ave Maria, my wife Claudia contacted me.  At the time she contacted me I was reluctant to even attempt to pursue a relationship and the fact that she resided in Colombia spurred me to reply in a manner that showed her I really was not interested.  Six-seven months later things started to get better in my life and I believe God prompted me to contact Claudia via Ave Maria.  As expected she was not real receptive considering my previous lukewarm response.  By the grace of God we started communicating on a regular basis in October 2008 and in November we started to Skype.  Within a week after our first Skype session I bought a ticket to fly down to Colombia.  Needless to say my family was concerned about me flying off to South America to meet a woman I met on-line, I responded with, “nothing ventured nothing gained” I was willing to take the risk.  On 26 Dec 2008, I flew to Medellin, Colombia, and the moment I met Claudia I knew she was the one I was going to marry.  The next five months we spent navigating the maze of USCIS for a fiancée visa and I continued to fly to Colombia on four separate occasions to visit her.  In June 2009, her visa application was approved and on 14 August 2009 we married at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Beaufort, South Carolina.  God has richly blessed us with two children, our daughter Rebekah who is 3 and our son Joseph who is 5 months old.  If someone would have told me ten years ago that I would marry a woman from Colombia I would have never believed them.  Claudia and I are very thankful for Ave Maria, if it was not for this ministry I know we would not have met.  May God continue to bless this ministry with many sacramental Catholic marriages.

 

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