Interracial Marriage
Sanettra & Greg -
Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, United States
Engaged February 2015
No Red Flags Here
Before she began her online dating endeavors, Sanettra was “only somewhat confident” that she’d meet her match on our site. Still, she stuck with it, waiting three years for the right guy to come along.
Conversely, Greg had a pretty easy time of it. “I expected to find a mate, but I was surprised at how quickly I found Sanettra,” he reveals. It’s true — Greg was only on the site for two weeks before noticing Sanettra’s profile!
What got him to sign up here? “I wanted to find a black woman and thought this was a good site for that purpose,” says Greg. “It was not the first such site I’d joined.”
Sanettra felt similarly. “I was interested in finding an interracial relationship,” she tells us. “This was the first site I joined.”
So that’s how “Iya33” (Sanettra) and “SlowLover4U” (Greg) found their way to the same site. Greg marked her as a favorite and Sanettra returned the favor. What was it about her profile that sparked his interest? “Sanettra was very clear about who she was, and the qualities of the person she was seeking,” answers Greg. “I felt as though she had written her profile just for me!”
He wasn’t alone in that assessment. Sanettra thought that Greg’s profile did a fine job of representing him. “The profile was very conversational in tone and I very quickly felt that I knew him,” she reports. “The most impressive thing to me about his profile was the clarity of Greg’s description of whom he was seeking, and his presentation of who he was.”
Sanettra and Greg started to communicate frequently. “After exchanging emails for about a week, we traded email addresses and phone numbers and began having daily phone calls, some of which lasted into the wee hours of the morning! Once we began talking on the phone, I knew that Greg was someone I wanted to meet—and soon—because our conversations had such a nice flow.”
We asked what convinced Greg to go out with Sanettra in person. He says it was “About 15 or 20 hours of intense phone conversations, during which we talked about all of the issues that were really important to us. We couldn’t find any real disagreements. Sanettra is also such a beautiful spirit that I just knew she was the one for me!”
There were some logistics to figure out first, though. “Since we live 200 miles apart, Greg agreed to come visit me,” Sanettra relays. “Of course, I was excited to meet him and was very appreciative of his willingness to drive so far. The instant we met, I knew that I had not made a mistake in meeting him at his motel. He was a complete gentleman and very calming to be around. I was very happy that I had agreed to meet him. After going out to dinner, we spent the evening in our motel room talking, getting to know each other, and eventually falling into each other’s arms for a wonderful kiss. I knew then that we were meant to be together.”
Here’s his account of that evening. “We met after about two weeks, on New Year’s Eve (12/31/14),” Greg begins. “I drove to Sanettra’s hometown to meet her, having already pretty much concluded that she was the one for me. We had dinner together and then talked about everything under the sun until the wee hours of the morning on New Year’s Day. By the end we were very comfortable with each other and it just kept becoming clearer and clearer that we were meant for each other.”
Sanettra certainly has a clear recollection of the impression Greg made on her, at the start of their date. “I was struck by how tall and handsome he was, and how he carried himself as a gentleman,” she says. Greg echoes the sentiment. “I was struck by how beautiful Sanettra was, how her in-person voice was even more beautiful than her phone voice, and how her smile was every bit as attractive as the one in her profile picture.”
What surprised Sanettra most about the date was the degree of familiarity they felt, despite being virtual strangers at that point. “My first-date jitters disappeared and I became completely comfortable and familiar with Greg,” she notes gratefully.
Greg was surprised, as well. “We were unable to find any ‘red flags’ to being in a relationship with each other, and in fact we found that we were perfectly matched in so many ways.”
After that, Sanettra was confident this wasn’t the end of the line. Was she certain there would be another date? “100% sure!” she laughs. “I never wanted to be away from Greg ever again.”
Did Greg want to meet again? “Without question! Our meeting only confirmed what I already knew — that Sanettra is the one for me.”
We asked if there was anything they discovered about each other that their profiles didn’t prepare them for. “Not really,” says Sanettra. “Greg’s profile was very complete and left me feeling that I knew him well.”
Greg answers the same question: “No. Sanettra’s openness and honesty in her profile gave me a very clear picture of who she was.”
Today they are happy as can be. “He is 100% of what I was looking for,” gushes Sanettra. “He is exactly the man I have imagined, and he is literally my dream come true!”
“Sanettra is a perfect match to my ideal woman,” Greg declares. “She is literally the answer to my prayer.”
The only challenge they faced in the early days came down to basic logistics. “The distance,” says Sanettra. “But we’re working out how to combine our lives. We considered ourselves a couple from almost the first night we met.”
“The #$%^&* distance!” exclaims Greg. “If it weren’t for that, we’d be living together already!”
This hurdle didn’t stop the duo from wanting make a commitment to one another. “By the end of New Year’s Day, we had decided that we wanted to be in each other’s lives for the rest of our lives,” Greg reveals. “That may seem crazy to those around us, but we are very clear that we are meant to be together. We went shopping for an engagement ring the next day! The ring arrived but we decided to wait until Valentine’s Day to slip the ring onto Sanettra’s hand.”
Finding love has turned Sanettra’s life upside down — in a good way! “It has given me someone with whom to share the rest of my life,” she beams. “I have found the man of my dreams and going forward I know that we will be successful, since Greg gives me the space to be exactly who I am. I feel so completely understood by him. I appreciate the fact that he loves me the way I want him to love me. I love him the same way, and it is mutually satisfying.”
Greg is happy to reflect on his relationship. “It has brought a calm to my spirit and a confidence not previously known. I now have brand-new dreams for the future, each of which is made sweeter by the knowledge that I’ll always have someone with whom to share those dreams.”
Here are Sanettra’s suggestions for singles. “Follow your heart. Don’t be discouraged, because you will get discouraged sometimes. If you read a profile and it resonates with your heart, give that person a chance. If you don’t feel the resonance, be gracious in your refusal and move on to the next profile.”
Greg believes that Step One is self-awareness. “Be very clear about who you are and who you seek,” he advises. “Write a profile that is a love letter to your perfect love. Do not try to attract everyone, because you are seeking your one and only. In fact, your perfect profile will repel everyone else and leave only your true love left standing.”
Whether you search with a fine-toothed comb or cast a wide net, the only way to find what you seek is to look and look some more!
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