It’s hard to believe, but Surprised By Marriage has been around since 2018! We used to be pretty active on YouTube, but jobs, hurricanes, and another baby got us out of the rhythm. Consider this our reboot! We are really hoping to be consistent with videos again, because we have so much fun filming them, and we’ve had people tell us they miss them!
In this video, we’re sharing about how we first started dating and how things went wrong on our honeymoon…and how that eventually led us to start this online marriage ministry. We share the double meaning behind the name, Surprised By Marriage! Please subscribe to our channel and click the bell to get notified when we post a new video.
If you have any suggestions for a future video topic, let us know! Comment below or send us a message.
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We really try to be intentional about our time together as opposed to just putting on the TV all of the time. Playing board games together is definitely on the list! But sometimes it’s hard to find 2-player games that are fun and worth the money. For example, Catan is one of our favorite family games, but you need at least 3 players.
So we wanted to share some of our favorite 2-player games…and what we like and dislike about them. Please share your favorite games in the comments! (Games make great gifts for the couples in your life, by the way!)
Synopsis: It’s a deck-building game where you try to get the most treasure (AKA victory points).
What we like: Each game is different because you can change out the cards used each time. It’s also takes the perfect amount of time to play, about 30 minutes. Not too long, not too short.
What we don’t like: It has a bad first impression. You have to play a couple games before you realize how awesome it is.
Synopsis: Be the first to collect 3 sets of properties (via cards and not on a board).
What we like: It’s much quicker than the original Monopoly game, and it only requires cards. We often play this on our bed, which is cool. No table required!
What we don’t like: Some of the cards will make you hate each other! Ha. Deal Breaker card, we’re looking at you. (Seriously, though.)
Synopsis: It’s a tile-laying game that takes place in medieval times. Build cities and roads while you try to score the most points!
What we like: It only requires tiles and meeples (the little people), and there’s a scoreboard included…so no paper and pen needed. It’s also easy to learn.
What we don’t like: We want to buy all the expansions now. Well played, Carcassonne. Well played.
Synopsis: Be the first to arrange your rack from lowest number to the highest.
What we like: It’s easy to learn and there is no way to make each other mad by ruining their chances.
What we don’t like: Keeping score (requiring pen and paper) is a little annoying. We also don’t ever play as long as the instructions say, until one person scores 500 points. That takes too long!
Synopsis: Collect sushi cards while attempting to score the most points.
What we like: It’s a game all about our favorite takeout food! You also pass your hand of cards around, which is a neat twist.
What we don’t like: It was very confusing at first, and we are always consulting the instruction book. We actually have the Sushi Go Party version, so that might be why (more cards are included). But many people prefer the Party version! You can play with 2 players for both.
Synopsis: Complete as many train routes as you can so you can earn the most points.
What we like: It’s a mini geography lesson, since you’re building routes from one city to another.
What we don’t like: There are opportunities to be a jerk and cut off someone’s route, which leads to some hard feelings. But maybe you aren’t as competitive as us. 🙃
Other 2-player games we enjoy but just haven’t played in awhile (AKA honorable mention):
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We’re in full summer mode over here, which looks very different from life during the school year. So we try to remember that it’s still important to be focusing on our marriage, and we often have more bandwidth to do so. If you need some ideas on how to enrich your marriage this summer, we’ve got plenty of ideas and resources for you!
1. Create a summer bucket list.
What are all of the things you’ve been wanting to do together for awhile? Write them down together and make it happen this summer. Go to a concert, try a new restaurant, take dance lessons, or any of the things below! A few years ago, we wanted to bake a cake together…so we did! It was so fun. (See the video here.) Download our Summer Bucket List here to list everything and check them off. Life is short, and we don’t want to regret not doing the things we want with our spouse!
2. Have fun together.
Maybe it sounds silly to include this, but sometimes we forget how important it is to enjoy each other and have fun together. We even have a budget category called “summer fun”, and even though that’s for things to do with our kids, it’s a reminder that we should have summer fun for our marriage too! Our favorite ways to have fun include going on dates (whether out of the house or at home), do silly lip sync videos (find us on Instagram), dance parties in the kitchen, and jamming out to music in the car.
Our Hawaiian themed date night in
3. Go on a retreat or do some kind of marriage enrichment together.
We talk about why we go on a retreat every year in this video and can’t recommend it enough, but the important thing is to be growing spiritually and emotionally in some way together. A retreat is our favorite way to do that, but you can also read a marriage book together (see our recommendations here), attend a marriage event, or find a workshop online.
May 2023, at the end of one of the many marriage retreats we’ve attended
4. Find a new hobby together.
This is one reason we try to do new things on dates, because we’ve learned what we enjoy doing together. So often couples just have their own interests, and while that’s important, we should also find things to do together. A few examples include gardening, playing a sport (we love to play tennis together), baking, or creating something.
We baked a cake together in the summer of 2019 as one item on our summer bucket list!
5. Plan a getaway.
We know, we know…it can be so difficult to make this happen. But it is so worth the effort! A vacation with your kids is special in its own way, but a trip with just a husband and wife can be even more special. We’ve never gone on a long couples trip due to various reasons, but have realized that just a night or two away does wonders for our marriage! Our anniversary is during the summer, so we usually plan a quick getaway during the summer months. We already have on the calendar a quick 2-night trip and we can’t wait! (We should also note that we had grand plans to go on a cruise for our 15-year anniversary but ended up planning something much simpler. Just make it happen!)
Our getaway to a local beach town in November 2020. Fun fact: a hurricane hit the town we had planned to visit a few days before our trip, so we had to find a new place last minute. We discovered another beach town closer to home and ended up having a great time!
As with most things, these things will require time and effort. But anything worth doing in life requires that! So remember that your marriage requires constant investment. Talk to your spouse about having fun together this summer. We’re praying you can make some of these things happen!
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A few years ago, we saw a post on Facebook where a woman stated that her daughter did not come before her husband. The majority of people commenting on it thought she was crazy (among other things) and said she shouldn’t have kids.
We know it’s hard to understand a statement like that when you have young children who depend on you to change them, feed them, and love them. But it’s true… your marriage should come before your kids. Your family is only as healthy as your marriage is, and so when we prioritize our marriage, our children will benefit. (And so will the rest of the world, but that’s a topic for another day!)
“If we get marriage right, we can not only transform our families and parishes, we can transform the world.”
This is a friendly reminder that your marriage came before your kids in the first place (in most cases), and it should be first once your kids are all grown up too. It may look different in those years in between, but your marriage should still be the most important human relationship in your life. It is the one relationship that you vowed to be there in sickness and in health, for richer and for poorer, until death do you part.
Why you should keep your marriage a priority now… and not later
Many people did not have a good example of marriage growing up so it may not make sense to put your spouse first when they are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. Kids need us, after all! That’s especially true when they’re younger.
But it’s important to remember that our children live with us for a brief period of time (in most cases), and even if you’re one of the few that have the responsibility of caring for your children for their entire lives (in the case of special needs), it’s still important — perhaps even more so — to put your marriage first.
Statistics show that the divorce rate for couples over age 50 have increased over the last few decades. You’ve likely heard of “empty nest syndrome”, and it’s one of the reasons for the increase in divorce for older couples. If you’re focused so much on your children to the detriment of your marriage, it’s going to be a rough transition when your children move out.
While we love our children dearly and will definitely miss them once they’re on their own, we also are looking forward to the phase of life where our children are on their own and we have more time with each other, if God blesses us with that opportunity.
But we should also point out that since we don’t know the future, we’re not waiting for that phase. It’s very possible that if/when we’re empty nesters, we might be dealing with serious illness or another difficult situation that would take up just as much time as our children take up now…which is just one of the reasons why we’re focusing on our marriage now and not later. We are living in the present moment!
What putting your marriage first looks like
So let’s first talk about what putting your marriage first DOESN’T mean…
It doesn’t mean that you’re a bad parent.
It doesn’t mean you don’t like your children.
It doesn’t mean that you let your children fend for themselves.
It doesn’t mean that you stop nursing your baby to make your husband a sandwich. (That one is extreme, but hopefully it made you giggle! 🙃)
We could give more examples, but hopefully that helps to clarify a little. Now for what it ACTUALLY means to put your spouse first:
It means that you and your spouse consistently dedicate time together with just the two of you.
It means that money for dates deserves a line in your budget. (We’re not saying you even have to spend money on dates…but make sure dates are a priority above other unnecessary things. See our date night guide for more!)
It means nourishing the relationship that will always be there. Your children will grow up and be on their own one day, but your spouse will still be there. (We know there are exceptions. Parents of kids with special needs, we see you. ❤️)
It means considering your spouse’s feelings and opinions ahead of anyone else’s. (And no, we don’t mean enabling bad behavior.)
It means finding shared interests even if you’re complete opposites.
It means consulting them when you have a decision to make.
It means giving your spouse your first fruits (after God, of course), instead of giving what’s left of you at the end of the day.
It means working on yourself so you can be the best spouse possible, because then you will be the best parent possible.
It means showing your children what a strong marriage looks like, because that is one of the greatest gifts you can give them.
A recent example of us putting our marriage first
We know it’s not easy, especially when you have a clingy toddler or an emotional teenager. But in our experience, when our marriage is thriving, we’re better able to be patient, loving, and firm parents. Our kids love it when we love each other well!
A couple of months ago, we were planning on attending a family-friendly event at a nearby church. We had enjoyed it very much the previous year and didn’t have a reason to notattend.
The week leading up to the event, however, was insane. The whole month before was crazy, actually, but this particular week was especially rough. It included an ER trip for one of our boys, the sudden announcement of our pastor leaving, difficulties at work for both of us, and just lots of other frustrating and inconvenient things. So we made the last minute decision to not attend the church event and to go on a date night instead! It ended up being a much-needed night of connection after a very crazy week. Our kids still had a great time with our friend/babysitter, and we were very happy with our decision to change plans and put our marriage first.
As long as you’re still giving your children what they need (and this will require some discernment), you won’t regret putting your spouse first. It is very possible to keep your marriage a priority without neglecting your children. It’s also 100% worth it – for the sake of your marriage, your family, and the rest of the world.
“Everything we do impacts the world around us. Your vocation, your marriage, can have a tremendous impact. Your marriage matters. It matters not just to you and your spouse, not just to your kids; it matters to the good of human civilization. Your marriage matters to God. We are convinced that the restoration of culture doesn’t rely on strong political leaders or governmental agencies but rather on strong marriages and families. Do you want to change the world? Then win marriage.”
Every year, February 7-14 is recognized as National Marriage Week. It really is the perfect time to celebrate the gift of married life and to show appreciation for our spouse. It’s also a great idea to do a little extra something when it comes to nurturing your relationship together. And in case you wanted some ideas on exactly what you can do during National Marriage Week, we have some ideas…
1. Pray for all marriages.
This includes your own! We need strong and faithful marriages more than ever, and since prayer is so powerful, we need to make sure we’re praying for all marriages.
2. Show love and appreciation for your spouse.
How you do this can vary widely, but we always look to each other’s love languages for inspiration.
3. Plan a date night.
Even if you think date nights aren’t necessary in a marriage, it’s still good to get out together every once and awhile! Date night doesn’t need to be fancy. It just needs to be intentional quality time for just you and your spouse. Check out our date night guide for more thoughts and tips! We also have ideas on having date nights at home.
4. Read a marriage book together.
We share some favorites on our Recommendations page, but there are so many more to choose from! Reading together provides the perfect opportunity to have some great conversation.
5. Choose an enrichment program or online retreat to go through together.
Just like certain professions require continuing education, we should be doing the same with our marriage! There’s an extensive list of enrichment programs at the USCCB’s website, For Your Marriage, here. We can personally vouch for how amazing United in Love is, which we did several years ago through our church parish. We’ve also hosted The Couple Prayer series a few times, and it’s been so fruitful for all couples. For Your Marriage also offers an online retreat every year for National Marriage Week; see the 2025 retreat here.
6. Listen to a marriage talk.
Dr. Brant Pitre has some great ones (like this one and this one), and there are plenty others one to be found on Formed.org by Venerable Fulton Sheen, Dr. Scott Hahn, and others.
7. Book a marriage retreat for the upcoming year.
We love retreats! Here are 10 reasons why you should go on a marriage retreat. We also share why we try to go on a retreat every year in this video: Why We Retreat
We encourage you to focus on your marriage throughout Lent too! Since Lent is coming soon, check out our Lenten marriage resources:
It’s that time again… time to start thinking about Lent! This is the third year we’re offering a Lent Challenge for Catholic Marriages. For every day of Lent, we have a challenge for you to complete together. Then refer to the Lent challenge guide for more thoughts about each challenge and ideas on how to complete it.
The challenges range from fun to spiritual. There are many ways to connect and pray together, and we wanted to include as many of them as possible. Hopefully this Lent challenge will help you figure out which devotions and small acts of love you want to continue once Lent is over. More importantly, it will help you connect with your spouse each day of Lent!
Also included is a blank calendar for February, March, and April that you can use to keep track of your Lent commitments and events, or you can fill in challenges of your own.
As we like to say with both our Lent and Advent challenges: don’t let these challenges stress you out. Yes, some of them may get you out of your comfort zone a little bit. But if you miss a day (or two…or three), just pick back up where you left off. The goal is to spend time together and pray together throughout the Lenten season. Click here or the button below to purchase.
Note: This is a digital download. A physical product will not be mailed to you. After checking out, you will receive an email with a link to download the PDF. Please do not share the file with anyone. If you’d like to print multiple copies, please email us for licensing options. Thank you!
Back in 2019, we started this Advent challenge for Catholic couples as a simple way to prepare for Christmas together with your spouse, while making your marriage a priority. So many have found it helpful, and we have even done a Lent challenge for 2 years now!
So here it is again: our 2022 Advent Challenge for Catholic Couples.
Our inspiration for this Advent challenge
Advent should be a calm and peaceful time, but often it’s the busiest time of the year! In the weeks leading up to Christmas, it’s very easy to get focused on shopping, parties, and everything else holiday-related.
But let’s not forget about our marriages.
Advent and marriage have a special link—both point us toward heaven.
Use this Advent season to draw closer to each other, to foster your relationship together, and to remind each other of the end goal—eternal life in heaven. And we’ve created something to help you do exactly that!
A calendar with a simple challenge each day
This challenge includes both a calendar with a simple challenge each day, as well as a guide that gives you some ideas on how to complete each challenge.
As an added bonus, we also include a blank calendar in case you want to make up your own challenges or switch some of the challenges around. Both calendars include feast days (because hey, Catholic marriage!). We really do hope and pray this will enrich your marriage and Advent season together! That being said…
Do not let these challenges stress you out. Skip a day, if necessary, or switch the challenges around to better suit your schedule. These challenges are to make sure you’re spending time together and praying together. Peace is the goal….not stress. Okay? Okay.
The Advent challenge and guide is available in our shop! Add it to your cart by clicking the button below (or click here if it’s not showing up)…
Note: This is a digital download. A physical product will not be mailed to you. After checking out, you will receive an email with a link to download the PDF. Please do not share the file with anyone. If you’d like to print multiple copies to share as gifts, please purchase multiple copies, or contact us for group licenses. Thank you!
A few years ago, we realized the importance of coming together on a weekly basis to prepare for the upcoming week, share concerns and struggles with each other, and to affirm each other. It’s very easy to let the busyness of life carry us away without taking a few minutes each week to slow down and go over important things together…so we wanted to create a simple and tangible way for married couples to connect every single week.
That’s where this marriage journal comes in! It’s a downloadable PDF that you can print, complete with 52 weekly pages, in addition to several extra pages.
For each weekly page, you’ll simply write down the following:
what you’re thankful for
prayer intentions for that week
3 things you need to accomplish together (i.e. projects around the house, appointments to schedule, etc.)
how you will make your marriage a priority (i.e. plan a date, schedule in some time together at home, etc.)
a short note of encouragement to each other
That’s it — 5 simple ways to get on the same page for the upcoming week while connecting with each other. Also included is a different Scripture verse (or verses) each week to read together and memorize if you’d like. We chose to get our journal printed as a spiral bound book (in color, but black and white is much cheaper), but you can also just print the pages you want to use, and then hole punch to put in a binder.
There are also a few “extra” pages, like a quarterly check-in page every 3 months, so you can evaluate how things are going. Other extras include:
an anniversary page
a date night bucket list
pages to write the Scripture of the week
extra pages to write notes to each other
a yearly review page
You can start using the journal at any time because we leave the date blank. So if you skip a week, you can still continue using the journal…and you can print it out again every single year! We created this to be simple and helpful, so we encourage you to use it in whichever way works best for you.
Having a weekly marriage meeting was such a game changer for us several years ago when we had 3 young boys. Eventually we just included the meeting points into our conversation throughout the week. But since our life was thrown into chaos this fall between Hurricane Ida and having a baby, we decided to bring back our weekly marriage meeting. We’ve updated our journal and hope it serves as a valuable tool for couples needing a little help getting on the same page each week. See below to purchase this 68-page downloadable PDF.
For a couple years now, we’ve shared our Advent Challenge for Married Couples. We’ve gotten such great feedback on it that we decided to do one for Lent this year!
Every day of Lent, we have a challenge for you to complete together. You can choose to just use the calendar, which goes from February to April. You can also use the blank calendar and fill in challenges of your own! Both have feast days listed. Then refer to the Lent marriage guide for more thoughts about each challenge and ideas on how to complete it.
Just like with the Advent challenge, we want to emphasize that stress is not the goal of this Lent challenge. Skip a day if necessary, or switch the challenges around to better suit your schedule. These challenges are to make sure you’re spending time together and praying together as we prepare for the Resurrection. It’s a great time to strive for holiness together as husband and wife.
The Lent challenge and guide is now available in our shop! Add it to your cart by clicking the button below…
$4.99
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As soon as I heard Meggie’s discernment story, I knew I had to share it with all of you, and thankfully she agreed!Discerning another baby—or any other major decision, for that matter—will look differently for each couple. But one thing is the same: it takes prayer, communication, and a whole lot of trust in God’s will and plan for your marriage and family. Meggie’s story shows that discernment doesn’t always end up the way we expect, but proof that God always knows best. -Jen
Discernment is a difficult topic to cover; each person’s journey is so different and so personal. Growing your family (or choosing to not grow your family) is entirely between your husband, you, and God, yet so many people come out of the woodwork when your journey doesn’t line up with what they perceive from the outside.
I’m going to be completely upfront about this: I do not feel qualified to write about discernment. It is something I constantly wrestle with, but maybe hearing about it from more women in the trenches is what the NFP community needs. I struggle. I struggle with selfishness, and I struggle with fear. I do not particularly like being pregnant.
Our plans from the beginning
When my husband and I first got married, we had agreed we would wait two years before trying to conceive. Our time spent dating and engaged was almost entirely long distance due to our different timelines with school and work. Our reasoning was that we needed time to adjust and settle into our married life, which included my transition from college to the workforce, a new city (for me), and honestly, just being in the same room together for more than a few hours.
I don’t love the phrase “we make plans, and God laughs.” I like to think God sighs a little at our pigheadedness and slowly pokes and prods us until we’re heading in the right direction. This is what happened…
Discerning pregnancy together
After a few months of marriage, I started to feel a longing for a child. I slowly began to examine our reasons for avoiding, and I no longer felt they held up anymore. I was doing well at work and could get to most places I needed without a GPS (which was a huge success, as I am very directionally challenged). Geoff and I had transitioned very naturally and joyfully into married life.
So one evening, I gathered my courage and broached the subject with him. I was longing for a child and was not at peace with trying to avoid any longer, but would of course respect his feelings as well. Geoff was hesitant as this was much sooner than we had agreed upon, but he encouraged me to continue to pray about it and promised we could continue to discuss. I would go to Mass on my lunch hour to pray for clarity, and to pray that Geoff would be open to the idea of switching to TTC (trying to conceive). I felt that the longing God put on my heart was truly of God, and from God.
The next stage was terribly painful. I watched as three weeks in a row, three women in our couples’ group announced that they were pregnant. Geoff walked into our bedroom after one of those evenings to find me crying. We discussed further and ultimately agreed that it was time to try.
We got pregnant immediately…and immediately miscarried. I was distraught, but several months later finally got another positive test. I was overjoyed but struggled intensely with anxiety, as we had lost our first. Days turned into weeks, and weeks into months, but everything went smoothly. In November of 2017, we welcomed our son, Becket.
His first few months were a challenge. Becket was colicky and screamed nearly non-stop for five months. He slept only three hours at a time, and our sleep training attempts repeatedly failed to stick. On top of this, he became a very proficient climber early on and learned to walk the same week he had surgery at 11 months old. That first year was a blur, and the times for marital intimacy were few and far between as we navigated the postpartum period. At 16 months, Becket finally slept through the night, and slowly our lives regained some normalcy.
Discernment is a process
I have struggled with scrupulosity all my life, and at 18 months again felt that maybe our reasons for avoiding were not as strong as they once were. Surely we weren’t being good Catholics if we continued to avoid without a life-threatening reason? Sure, my anxiety was bad, but my head was at least above the water now. Geoff reminded me that God calls us to be responsible parents, and that I was in no state to have more children yet. God does not call us to drown ourselves, but to wait with patience for his love and his peace.
My anxiety continued to worsen around Becket’s second birthday, and Geoff and I finally decided it was time for me to seek help. That worked for some time, and in February of 2020, I mentioned to Geoff the guilt I felt for continuing to avoid. He again reminded me that just as we can’t make the decision to avoid out of fear, we can’t make the decision to conceive out of fear either. That decision must come from a place of peace.
Sure enough, COVID hit the US, and during the first lockdown, Geoff looked at me across the table and said, “Aren’t you glad you aren’t pregnant right now?” The anxiety of being pregnant with so many unknowns in the early days of the pandemic would have probably sent me over the edge mentally.
With COVID, my anxiety crept right back up and reached such a fever pitch that I ultimately ended up in the emergency room with a sudden and severe pain at the base of my skull following weeks of daily tension headaches. My head was fine, but the doctor had noticed a nodule on my thyroid. I was assured it was no big deal. Many people have them, and 98% of the time they’re benign. In fact, the doctor nearly forgot to tell us about it!
I did some minor research when we got home, but was not particularly alarmed. I was more concerned about finding a solution to the crippling anxiety, so I promptly scheduled an appointment with my primary care physician. He put me on anxiety medication after years of me trying to avoid it, and he also ordered an ultrasound of my thyroid, which wouldn’t happen for some time.
Leaving survival mode behind
The medication was a complete life-saver. Not only was my head above the water, but I was able to swim. I left survivor-mode behind me and felt myself becoming a better wife and mother almost overnight. I felt that I really wouldn’t mind starting to think about having another child again. So I began diving deeper into discernment. My prayer went from, “Please don’t ask me to get pregnant again, because I just can’t do it!” to “If it is your will, God, please place that desire for a child in both of our hearts, and let us be at peace.”
It was an incredibly freeing thing to put that in God’s hands—to ask Him to prepare my heart for another child if that was what He wanted of me. I was confident that He would do so, that I would soon feel that peace as confirmation that it was time for us to try to conceive again. I finally felt ready to put that decision in God’s hands.
Unexpected peace
The peace did come…but in an unexpected form. I suddenly found myself very at peace with avoiding a pregnancy, which was perplexing—it was the exact opposite of what I assumed would be our next step. So, we continued to avoid a pregnancy.
I had my thyroid ultrasound, and the technician was cheerful and friendly. I expected to wait for two weeks but received my results the next business day. The report recommended a biopsy, accompanied by very technical terms describing the nodule. I took to Google to learn about the classification method of thyroid nodules, and my stomach dropped. There was an 80% chance or greater that it was cancer. Two days later, I was biopsied, and a week after that, had all suspicions confirmed: papillary carcinoma with the BRAF v600e mutation (AKA cancer).
The importance of NFP during treatment
Ten days after my diagnosis, I had a total thyroidectomy. Our need to avoid a pregnancy became extremely serious, as I faced the possibility of radioactive iodine treatment. If I didn’t need the additional treatment, we would only need to avoid for a few months until my medication was properly adjusted. If I did need it, we faced a year of very strict TTA (trying to avoid) for the safety of the baby.
The surgery was a success, but my doctor ultimately decided I needed further treatment to kill any remaining thyroid cells, so I began preparing for something called radioactive iodine (RAI). As thyroid cells are essentially the only cells in your body that absorb iodine, by ingesting a radioactive iodine pill, any remaining thyroid cells absorb the radioactivity and are slowly destroyed. It is a very targeted therapy, and requires going on a low-iodine diet to starve your body of iodine so it absorbs better. It also requires total isolation for anywhere from three days to three weeks.
Knowing the seriousness of this treatment, I contacted a new NFP instructor to help guide us through the coming year of avoiding, who has helped me several times already as we navigate progesterone tests for confirming ovulation.
The gift of NFP and its fruits
I am now on the other side of my treatment, and recently received the news that there is no evidence of spread. There is always a chance of recurrence, but for now, we are doing well and looking forward to the future that will hopefully include more children somewhere along the way!
Discernment is a difficult topic. It involves taking a deep look at ourselves, our intentions, and our motivations, which can sometimes be painful. I am deeply grateful for the gift of NFP and the way it has helped me to learn to trust better and slowly taught me to pray: not my will, but Thine.
Meggie is a born-and-bred Midwesterner living in the deep south with her husband, Geoff, and their busy 3-year-old, Becket. She works part-time in residential architecture, and full time in domestic engineering. When not chasing her son or sketching floor plans, she can be found reading a good book and drinking a Moscow mule.
