Marriage Preparation Class

So Eddie and I attended our Marriage Preparation Class yesterday at St. Patrick's church. 

It was a good experience (and a delicious lunch of Juan Pollo ;) ).

One important thing thatI took from the class was the concept of "origin of family," which basically is about how our past experiences with family and marriage will (obviously) affect our expectations in our marriage.  I think this is a good thing to remember in the future when I'm pulling my hair out at WHY?!?! does he do this, that, or the other.

Another ah ha moment came when we discussed our dreams...which I was very happy to be reassured remain the same as his: kid/s, career satisfaction, zero balance on my credit card (depicted as a full bank account in his drawings), travel, furniture for the house ;) , a roasted pig (well that is more his dream, but I can support that.. ;) ).

Spirituality was an area of discussion that I came out of feeling less anxious about.  A reminder that we're all at different places in our own spiritual journeys, but the importance of keeping things God centered and bringing each other closer to God or further along our spiritual paths.  Praying together before going to sleep, going to adoration, volunteering at church together, etc.

The most moving moment of the whole day was the prayers we wrote at the end of the day.  While being given from a Catholic-Christian point of view, the day wasn't about converting anyone to Catholicism, etc.  But at the last session of the day, we were asked to write a prayer, and then at the VERY END of the day we were to read the prayers to each other.  Of course I could barely read through my whole two sentences without tearing up.  And hearing Eddie's words of course kept the waterworks going.  (Hence his reasoning that we should not/cannot write our own vows :P ).  That really reinforced the importance to me of communicating and articulating things that we might think, but maybe not voice often enough.