I knew about eHarmony.com since 2000, but I never came to a full conclusion about it (and wondered how God felt about it).  In February of 2004, I started praying for some guidance there.  I thought about the story of Isaac & Rebekah in the Bible.  Isaac's father Abraham sent his servant off to find a wife for Isaac.  He gave him very strict instructions on the place to go (which implied cultural and religious standards).  The servant prayed for guidance and prayed for a sign that would show him if the girl was a woman with a servant's heart.  God answered all these requests and brought Rebekah without Isaac doing much work.  I realized that eHarmony was like that -  a searching servant looking to match the requirements that are important; it wasn't a "What's your favorite color" and "Do you like pets" kind of matching; it was very in-depth right down to the core values that define us.  That sounds like an eHarmony ad maybe, but the bottom line is that it worked and broke any stereotypes in my mind.

After about a month I was matched with Jennifer.  We exchanged multiple choice questions the first day, then a list of Top 10s we need and don't want in a spouse, then open ended questions.  We did value comparisons and compared our convictions on a vast number of issues from politics to interpreting the Bible to child-rearing.  Then we just got to know each other; talking about our families, where we grew up, what we like to do in our spare time, etc. We found some absolutely amazing similarities that you can read about on our Courtship Announcement.

We "spoke" using email for the first 3 weeks that we knew each other.  After the first week or so, I suggested that we meet in person in about a month if things continued to progress.  Jenn was startled at first - I was moving too fast!  But, after we wrote emails almost daily for three weeks, she was feeling much more comfortable with the idea.  About a week before our visit, we spoke together by phone for the first time.  That was interesting... I didn't know what to expect: would she have a harsh or squeaky voice?  Would it change anything if she did?

It was so amazing to learn how much we had in common. Truly, God blessed us with each other's company and friendship.  The more I get to know Jennifer as a person, the more I realize that God was preparing us so perfectly for each other and that there are so many things that I never thought to ask for which He gave me anyway.  We have so much fun together doing little projects (like this website!).  God willing, the years ahead will be filled with times that we worked together to minister and to create things which neither of us could have done by ourselves.

Colin and I are both pretty “high tech” people, he being the engineer and me being a secret computer geek at heart. So it may not be a surprise to anyone that we met on the Internet. Actually, that’s not really accurate. Early in 2004, both Colin and I logged onto eHarmony.com, a site started by Dr. Neil Clark Warren that uses his principles of compatibility to match up couples. After a pretty extensive questionnaire (~400 questions), Colin and I were logged into the system. We were both matched with lots of great potential partners. Colin initiated “communication” with me through the website and with a little prayer, I sent him a reply.

As they say in show business, the rest is history, I guess. Colin’s first questions to me were very straightforward and “interview-like.” I learned that that was his way, very methodical and purposeful. We talked about our backgrounds, families and friends, work and church. We learned within a short time that Colin and I were born at the same hospital and that we lived 20 minutes from each other for the first 8 years of our lives! Colin was now living near Roanoke, VA and I was still in NJ, working in Bethlehem, PA.

Colin’s brother Paul Burton and my sister Erin also went to college together at Philadelphia Biblical University. Erin had also been at Colin’s house while on Chorale tour her freshman year! I was a bit skeptical when Colin told me that (a girl can never be too trusting of guys she meets on the internet :-), but he did have the pictures to prove it!) Plus, my sister actually remembered being there.

We met in person about a month after we started talking on e-mail. The Sunday before the visit, we talked on the phone. Boy, was I nervous, thinking that we’d have NOTHING to talk about and the conversation would end in 10 minutes. Well, it wasn’t a problem and since that time, Colin and I have never failed to talk on the phone to each other each night. We always end the day with prayer and I look forward to those times. Often, we are staying up WAY too late and talking too long (by the way, our first conversation lasted 2 hours, I think). Verizon Wireless is certainly losing money on me with all of the free minutes I’ve been using.

God has been amazing in bringing us together and it is amazing and very uncanny how similar and complementary we are to each other.