In Recognition of Our "Other Anniversary"

I started writing this post a few days before the actual anniversary, but the post started going in a direction that I didn't want to go, so I set it aside and figured I'd revisit it later.

 

On October 27th John and I had an extra special anniversary.  Our wedding anniversary is August 20th and this year we celebrated 8 years of marriage.  8 years ago, after only 6 months of dating, we were married and the time has flown by so fast.  8 years, 3 houses, 3 dogs, a few job changes, and 3 kids have made the time fly by.

 

Reciting our vows

But on October 27th we stood in front of our parents, our children, a few friends and family members, and our children (with one bun in the oven!) and did it all over again.  Why?  Because we were soon to be united as one family in one common faith.  For 7 years we had been a "mixed marriage" with John having been raised Catholic and the kids and I having been raised Methodist.  But that would be changing at Easter Vigil 2013 when I would be joining the Church.

Profession of Faith for the kids.  Thomas refused to join in as it was close to his bedtime.

 

So on October 27th, 2012, we stood before the priest and professed our marriage vows all over again.  This time, our marriage would be recognized by the Catholic Church, John could resume taking Holy Communion, and when I joined the Church 5 months later I would also be able to receive.  Immediately after having our marriage convalidated, we did a profession of faith for both of the children, basically the way the Catholic Church recognizes their baptisms from the Methodist Church.  So my own children beat me into the Church!

Father Jason and us

We had our ceremony in the small side chapel at our local parish.  The chapel is seriously my favorite place to be.  It's where our parish celebrates Eucharistic Adoration every Thursday and Friday each week and it is such a beautiful room and such a beautiful practice.  It's very small, only large enough for probably 20 people, but it just feels so peaceful there.  You can see the beautiful crucifix as well as statues of the Blessed Mother on the left and St. Therese of Liseux on the right.  There are also some beautiful stained glass windows that you can't see very well since it was already dark out.

 



Big night for the Ihle Family!

I'm not going to go into my whole conversion story or why this anniversary was necessary for us.  That's a story for a different time, if ever.  I'm pretty sure it would be a snooze fest for 99% of the people who read this blog.  All I can say is that it feels so good knowing that our entire family of 5 is now a part of the same Church and the same faith tradition.

Our witnesses, John's sister Julie, and John's friend Joe

The End.