It's official. My husband got his 4th Degree at the Knights of Columbus knighting ceremony last night. I got to wear a fancy ball gown and have "Lady Abigail" on my name tag. There were 135 new knights from 5 states at the dinner. I got to met all kinds of wonderful Catholic families.
The best advice I received on how to raise kids Catholics was "have Catholic friends." A wife of a retired Coast Guard member told me that one summer a neighbor invited them to visit their beach house. On the trip down, her oldest daughter gave the mom a big speech. "Now, Mom DON'T embarrass us by asking about Sunday Mass! If our friends want to skip this weekend, that's fine. Let's not make a big deal about it. We really don't need to go either if its to much trouble." The Coast Guard Mom held her tongue and said a prayer. When they got to the beach house the friend's house, the other mother met them at the door. The first thing she said was 'Now lets figure out which Sunday Mass we're going to attend and we can figure out the rest our weekend plans around Mass!" The Coast Guard wife told me, "having other friends who take their faith seriously is such a help. Your kids won't feel so alone or so weird."
After a rare night alone, my husband told me something so sweet. "You are my whole world. You and your children. Everything else I care about is in heaven!"
I love marriage so much. Things get so much better with time, and ours was a great marriage at the start!
