For men looking for love, Cecil and Marianna Sandstrum offer a novel roadmap.

For nearly three years, they've operated Marianna's Marriage Agency, which links American men to Ukrainian women via the Internet.

If love blooms, the men pay about $3,500 for eight days of courtship in Ukraine, which includes hotel accommodations, translators and legal paperwork, such as the fiancée visa.

Business is good, helped by the aftermath of Sept. 11, Marianna says.

"People realize they no longer want to be alone," she says. "We're really busy."

The only change in their lives is location, she adds. Earlier this month, they moved from Hillsboro Beach to Porter, Texas, a suburb of Houston where Cecil once lived. The move was made so Cecil could tend another Sandstrum business.

At the moment, Marianna says about 500 women are on their agency Web site and in their printed catalog. Between 50 to 60 men are in the letter-writing stage of courtship. About a dozen women are waiting for paperwork to clear so they can come to the United States. Sometimes a marriage follows, sometimes not.

Cecil and Marianna, who's from Ukraine, offer themselves as Exhibit A that marriages between Ukrainian women and American men can work. One of Marianna's Ukrainian girlfriends married an American man she'd met through an agency. The girlfriend's husband, a friend of Cecil, showed him Marianna's photo and Cecil liked what he saw.

Despite the near 30-year age difference (Cecil is in his mid 50s, Marianna in her mid 20s) Marianna says their three-year marriage is a happy one. Just last month, they were in a wedding in which their agency played successful matchmaker.

"I was a bridesmaid," she says. "Cecil gave the bride away."