After we left Chicago, we headed to the Space Coast of Florida. I had never lived in the Space Coast specifically, although I had lived in multiple places in the state. However, Julia had grown up there, and I had visited so many times, it already felt like home. During the final months of Julia’s…

After we got pregnant for the second time, we canceled our planned nomadic stop in Mexico. We decided to stay in the US, however, and needed a change of scenery. Thus, we went back to Chicago. There are so many beautiful churches in Chicago. I (Julia) made it my mission during our time there to…

As we got closer to Julia’s due date, we started to get ready for the baby to come. But, we were not ready for what was coming. Late Pregnancy We had a beautiful Christmas Eve Midnight Mass at St. Joseph’s Toledo in Ohio. The decorations and ambience were something to marvel at. Before the New…

Back to Florida After only a short time in Chicago, I received a surprise phone call. I was offered an engineering contract that I couldn’t turn down. Julia was in the middle of an internship in Chicago, so in the summer of 2018, I moved down to Jacksonville, FL to start my new job. For…

When we got to Chicago, we we still had no idea what was in store for us. There was so much to the city. Everywhere we looked was another church. So, we decided to take a Chicago Church Tour. We had a friend from Julia’s childhood (now a FOCUS Missionary. Check out more about FOCUS…

After a year of planning, the day finally came. Julia and I were ready to start our lives together. Our visits to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine and the Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche made us fall in love with them. We decided we had to get married there. We had a…

Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche One weekend Julia and I visited the Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche. Yes, that is Spanish for Our Lady of the Milk. It’s a shrine dedicated to Mary nursing the baby Jesus. The devotion to Our Lady of La Leche goes all the way to the…

Time to Meet My Parents After we were officially dating for a few months, it was time to take Julia back to Ohio to meet my parents. Naturally, it went great. Everyone always loves Julia. My parents loved her, and my cousin and his wife told me immediately after meeting Julia that I needed to…

Our first date went well. I took Julia to a little gelato shop in downtown Gainesville, and we went for a walk afterward. At one point, Julia rushed ahead and announced, “I want a life of adventure!” and I thought that was so cute. It was a very simple, but enjoyable date. Yet, when I…

I remember looking up from my pew and seeing what I thought must be an angel. The summer before, I had decided to read the majority of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  I had been questioning religion and the meaning of life for years by this point.  The Catechism seemed a reasonable place to…