"Be the Good News"

Andrew and I had a date night last Saturday.  We started off going to our Parish Appreciation Dinner at Blessed Sacrament and then headed downtown to the 5th Ave for Les Miserables.  The show was amazing, of course.  But if you can believe it, there was another highlight that I'll spend even more time describing (and for those of you who know my Les Mis obsession, you know that means this has got to be pretty good).


Before we took our seats, a very friendly Canadian couple struck up a conversation with us by glancing at my baby bump and offering Congratulations.  They then asked how we "knew" it was time to try to start a family.  They have been married a couple years now and are trying to decide whether to start trying.  However they are "planners" (especially the wife) and just don't know if it's the right time.  She did talk about how whether or not to have children has never been a question; that she would not want to find herself in old age without family.  How she would feel selfish and unfulfilled and as if her whole life had been lived just for her and no one else.  But at the same time, how intimidating it is to know whether or not you're really ready.


They were surprised to find out this isn't our first baby. We talked about how there are always reasons not to have a baby if you look for them but that there is sometimes no planning for how life turns out.  We told them how we had found out about Andrew's cancer diagnosis and that suddenly whether we would even ever be able to have children became a big unknown and that we decided to try to conceive before Andrew began chemo just a week later.  Suddenly faced with the reality that life isn't completely up to us, a lot of those reasons to wait seemed to be so trivial.  Thankfully, God has blessed us with the ability to have more children despite Andrew's ordeal.  But even so we have never regretted our decision to have our daughter.  She has been the most amazing blessing and gift in our lives.  Andrew described to them the joy of walking through the door at the end of a stressful day at work to have a little girl run up and tackle your legs yelling "DADDY!!!!"  We described how a little person in your home helps you to reclaim your own childhood once again; to appreciate the very little things and look for the wonder in everything around you and to have fun just being silly.  Yes, we were also honest that parenthood comes with its own challenges and stresses as well.  But doesn't every relationship in life and anything good worth pursuing require a degree of sacrifice and work?  In the end, the couple told us they were absolutely inspired by our story and that it was such a true gift to have met us at this specific time for them.


During the homily for our wedding Mass almost four years ago, Bishop Eusebio told us that we as a couple are called to "Be the Good News" in the world.  So yes, I love Les Miserables with a passion.  But I guess the reason that this conversation was so memorable and blog-worthy is that it felt like a moment where Andrew and I were truly being the good news.  It was an affirmation of our vocation to marriage and as a married couple.  Pretty awesome.


Oh, plus I was told to document for the record that Andrew loves going to Les Mis now too!  Because really, who wouldn't?!