Open To Life

Our first family picture.

I was thinking about how October is "respect life" month, which got me thinking about a post I wrote back in the spring on getting married and having kids young. A commenter wondered how we, idealistic and immature "kids" in our early twenties, would react to something bad happening to our family. 

Well, something bad already happened. And you know what? When I think about all of our faithfully Catholic, young married friends from the Newman Center, well, something bad has happened to most of them as well. They have suffered miscarriages, experienced infertility, had traumatic births that ended in NICU stays, helped a child recover from a terrifying accident, and had a child diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. Even those who haven't had "something bad" happen per say, have had things go absolutely not according to plan. 

I feel like when young Catholic couples get married and talk about being open to life, they're imagining a big, happy, messy family. Sort of Cheaper-by-the-Dozen style. That was certainly the case for us! But being open to life means so much more than that. It means being open to the full spectrum of life experiences and to whatever God has in store for you. 

Life is beautiful and hard and joyous and scary and precious and sometimes really, really sad. But the only way to truly live it is to be open to His plan rather than our own.