St. Anne's in Richmond Hill, Georgia offered an evening daily Mass in the Extraordinary Form attended by a number of young people, but Christine and Thomas were not officially introduced until their mutual friend, Julia Kent (nee De Reinzo) did the honors when the group first went out for dinner. While Christine and Thomas attended a few of these dinners after Mass, and even both went to a family Christmas Party at Julia's house, they did not have their first date until months later! Thomas decided to ask her out after they ran into each other at a local Catholic bookstore and she impressed him by quoting Saint Thomas Aquinas, his namesake. At first, she did not realize that his offer for dinner after Mass the following Tuesday (The Feast of the Presentation) was not another group dinner, but a date! Even though she had other plans, and their date was cut short, he caught her eye and many of their future dates typically began with Mass.

After around a year of dating Christine went up North to take a job at her alma mater, Christendom College. Later the next year on the Feast of the Visitation on July 2nd, Thomas' plan went perfectly. He had chosen this date for a few reasons. One, the Feast of the Visitation was Christine's favorite, and his mystery in the Rosary group he was in. Second, when they attended Mass, the readings for the day included the one with the verse where his pet name for Christine came: "My Love, My Dove, My Beautiful One." Later, after dinner (which had a treat of Christine's favorite food-octopus), and gazing at the stars, he proposed!