We first met online, messaging through the website on 12/18/21 and found we have some things in common, especially our faith. Neil asked to meet prior to Christmas rather than continue to message to discovery if we did have some interest in person. My 3 yrs of online dating had not been very successful as a lot of men spent weeks just messaging before they asked to meet. It was wonderful that Neil didn't want to wait but wanted to know if the interest was mutual. We met at Starbucks on 12/22 in Buffalo Grove to chat in person. Neil amazed me because he fully looked at me and listened to me, rather than interrupt or ponder what he was going to say next. I couldn't believe how interested he was in just chatting with me. I was very upfront with Neil, that although I had been a Christian for 20 yrs, most of the time I lived 1 foot in the world and 1 in my faith, especially in terms of relationships, which I believed was the reason those had failed as I was not following God's plan for my life. So a year ago I rededicated my life to living life God's way, which meant that anyone I dated would be with the end goal of marriage, being chaste until after the wedding, being equally yoked, and spending time with Jesus at the center of the relationship. Neil expressed that he, too had lived similarly with the same results so he rededicated himself to Jesus to walk the path according to God's plan and his goals were the same! Both Neil and myself were in awe of how God had done a work in us individually to deepen our faith and commitment then brought us together!! We were there for some time just getting to know each other and at the end of the date, he walked me to my car and asked if he could hug me, I said Yes! Wow, he gave a great strong hug! We spent a wonderful day together after Christmas in Lake Geneva, getting to know each other. Neil suggested a Christian book for us to study and discuss, which was wonderful n we started that after the Lake Geneva day. In January, before Neil was going to make his annual trek to Cancun for 3 weeks, we met for lunch, both with the same thought - we really needed to kiss before he left. Just to know if that 'spark' was real as he was going to be gone for 3 weeks - too long to wait! Obviously, the 'Spark' was there! During the 3 weeks he was in Cancun, we 'dated' by Zoom, focusing on discussing the chapters in the book and really discovering our similarities and our differences. He came back on 1/26, I picked him up from the airport - again I wanted to make certain that kiss was what I remembered - Better than the first one!! About a week later during one of our evening calls, he said he had something to talk to me about, he knew he should really do this in person but he just couldn't wait any longer! My mind thought - oh no! Then he said he had fallen in love with me and wanted us to get married and that he would ask me in person but it was important to him to let me know how he felt! You all know what happened, or so you think - I said Yes but no, wasn't it a bit early, could we just be engaged but give it a couple more weeks? We shopped for rings on 2/9 and now you know how this journey is going............ Neil's Note - Thought you would also like to know that Neil III and Tom have said they have never seen me so happy!