God and Divine Providence is the ONLY reason we have anything to celebrate on August 16th!

Friday, February 23, 2024, started out as any normal, ordinary day. Around lunchtime, Hannah, hopped on a Zoom consult call for work with a woman she had never met, but who had been praying and thinking a lot about what she was going to say to Hannah...

Turns out, Marie (Peter's mom) had somehow come across Hannah's bio on her company (Metanoia Catholic's) website. Marie had been praying for her son, asking the Lord to bring a strong, faith-filled woman into his life. And even though Marie had never heard of Metanoia Catholic before accidently clicking MULTIPLE links that somehow led her away from the very different podcast episode she had been listening to on her phone, not only did she somehow stumble upon Hannah's page, but she also scheduled a consult call with the intention of making a connection for Hannah and Peter, hoping they might meet.

Peter had no idea.

After greeting Marie, Hannah could tell that she was very nervous about something. Marie continued to reiterate that she "had never done anything like this before", "this was so out of character for her", and she "hadn't told her family that she was doing this." Trying to gently coax it out of her, Hannah attempted to be calm and encouraging, offering to Marie that, as a Catholic life coach, she had heard it all and that nothing was going to surprise her. Until now...

Marie began by asking if Hannah was dating anyone and sharing about her son. "Okkkk....I'm not really sure why all this matters," Hannah thought to herself. But staying the course, she continued to listen to Marie explain. Then, it clicked.

Marie wasn't interested in coaching, she scheduled this call solely with the intention of playing matchmaker!

As it dawned on her and unsure of how to respond, Hannah started to giggle. She was obviously very flattered, and even as Marie shared about this perfect man -- a man who loves God, loves his family and loves baseball -- Hannah had her suspicions. Marie even suggested that Hannah search for his profile on LinkedIn so she could see a picture of him while still on the Zoom call. Dang, and he's cute, too?! "He seems too good to be true," she thought again to herself. "What's the catch?"

Still a bit giggly and in disbelief of where this typical sales call had headed, Hannah thought she had found the loophole. "Where do you all live?" she asked Marie, assuming that Mr. Perfect probably lived somewhere 1,000 miles away. "Just outside of Kansas City," Marie replied quickly. Fifteen minutes, to be exact, from Hannah.

"I'm going to see Peter either tonight or tomorrow. He has no idea I did this," Marie added. "I know this sounds crazy. I have a daughter and if she came home and told me that all of this happened to her, I'd tell her to stay clear of those people. But I just couldn't shake the feeling that I had to reach out to you and see if you were open to me sharing your number with him."

Thinking that Marie was harmless, that more than her phone number could probably all to easily be found online and that there was a 50/50 chance she would ever even hear from Peter, Hannah shared her number and thanked Marie for taking a chance and listening to what she thought God was telling her to do.

"This will make for a good story," Hannah thought. She had no idea just how good!

That night, Peter went over to his parents' house to have dinner. Marie sat Peter down and told him she had to talk to him about something and not to get mad. "I honestly had no idea what was going to come out of her mouth next," Peter would later recount.

Marie shared with Peter that she had been praying for him to meet a beautiful woman and then this ad for Metanoia Catholic kept popping up on her phone. "You're going to think I'm crazy," Marie said. "I reached out and told her about you and got her number! I think you should give her a call!!"

If it had been any other week, Peter probably would have, in fact, thought that his mom was crazy. However, just a few days earlier, Peter told God in prayer that he wasn't sure if he could ever date again. Peter told God that if it was His will that he should start dating, He was going to have to put her right in front of him.

Peter called Hannah the next day.