12 Years Later

We celebrated our 12th Anniversary on Sunday.  I just told someone tonight how I knew the moment I met you, I would marry you.  I was spending the summer with your family.  You had just driven back from your sophomore year of college at Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.  I loved you before I met you because your sisters spoke about you with dreamy eyes.  They would say things like, "Everything is better when John is home."  or  "John always plays with us."  I remember thinking how unique you must be if you are loved by your six little sisters.  I met you and drove to the Newman Center for mass.  I called my mom from the pay phone and told her that I was going to marry you.  We met on May 19, 1998 and we married exactly three years later on May 19, 2001.

May 2001 on our honeymoon in Cancun, Mexico.

I know we both feel overly blessed in our lives mainly with each other and the 11 children God has so chosen to send us in these 12 years of marriage.  We have three souls in heaven (St. Benedict, St. Margaret, and St. Francis) that I know we both look forward to meeting and finally say, "Oh, it was you!"  We are not fools to know that the cross can come at any time in our lives so I pray we both are on watch always.  I offer my rosary everyday for specific intentions and always one decade is set aside for you that Our Good Lord  and His Mother will protect you mind, body, and soul.  I hope to always remember the words a good priest friend told us, "Pray that each other will have final perseverance and keep their faith."

                               May 19, 2013 John and I with our eighth child.  (5 months pregnant)