It all started in 2005…
Okay people, I won’t actually go that far back. 2005 was,
however, a year that would change my life forever. It was the year I graduated
and started college, the year I turned 18, but most importantly, the year I
began dating my husband, Chris.
We dated through college and we got engaged in May 2009.
This is where the story really begins. We knew one day we would want a family
but definitely wanted to wait many, many moons (like until we were 29-30) to
have kids so we could travel, be uber successful, blah blah blah. You know, the typical awesome college
grad dreams.
Throughout 2009, in addition to planning a wedding, we
started our preparation to be married in the Catholic Church. At the time, I
was a luke-warm Catholic (on my best days) and Chris wasn’t Catholic. As it
turns out, the Church has a lot of awesome things to say about marriage….
Ironic Life Moment #1: One thing I specifically remember
before we started our official marriage prep is that my cousin Monica (while she trimmed my hair) asked if we had to take Natural Family Planning classes as
part of our marriage preparation in the Church. I probably laughed and said
I was glad that we didn’t have to. The thought of using NFP was ridiculous to
me. I would “never” do that!!!! (Just like I would never marry a blond boy…with
blue eyes…..that was a jock….or live in the country……or want more than 2
kids…..or do anything other than be a musician….)
In our marriage prep, we went to what’s called the
“Pre-Cana” weekend, and that’s where we first were introduced to the Catholic
teaching on marriage (the link has an amazing document on marriage, please
read!). Though the truth always sets us free, not all encounters with truth are
pleasing at first. But I can say that in this instance it was more than
pleasing. We fell in love! The last part of the day was a presentation from a
guy on NFP and we were sold.
Once we got married in April 2010, life moved pretty fast.
From that day until January 2012, there were lots of milestones. We moved into
our house. Chris became Catholic. I became active in the pro-life movement. We
decided that waiting until 30 to begin having kids was not a happy thought for us and
that traveling really isn’t THAT awesome. Turns out, we really just enjoy
simple things and each others’ company.
Important Life Moment #1: We were at our friends Tom and
Renee’s house sitting at their kitchen table in December 2011. We’d only known
them for a short time, but they’re awesome and we grew close quickly. So we
were talking about having kids and discussing why we were still waiting to have
kids. The whole conversation made me uncomfortable because both Chris and I had
discussed this issue many times and without much resolve, mostly on my part.
Renee said something that really stuck in my mind over the next weeks/months:
“Children are the sign of marriage.” If I had only known in that moment how important those wise words would be...
To be continued...
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