This weekend my husband and I led a marriage retreat. The funny thing is that when we were asked to participate we were in a completely different mindset - we were getting ready to go to our best friends wedding, Miguel (Javi's brother) was finishing his wrestling season, we were preparing Annemarie's 1st birthday trip etc. What we didn't know was that that would all change about two weeks prior to the retreat.
About two weeks ago we found out we were expecting and although not planned, we were excited for this new blessing. We changed everything we had planned, even being heartbroken that we couldn't attend the wedding due to our doctors advise (wedding was in Mexico). I cried my eyes out for about two days alongside my husband, from not being able to attend the wedding to how were we going to manage with this new surprise blessing. I turned to prayer, like I usually do, and even spoke to Javi and asked if we were in the right mindset to be one of the couples to lead the retreat. We decided to take a trip to St. Augustine - as many of you saw and read last week. We wanted to collect our thoughts and regroup. We had such an amazing time and we were really able to find ourselves and were excited to be back on track. Well ... God had something else in store for us. A couple of days after our trip ... we had a miscarriage. Now, if you've read my previous posts you'll know that this happened to me before having my beautiful Annemarie and of course just like that time, I was devastated. (I have ALWAYS wanted to be open about my journey because I want to be there for anyone that may be going through something similar.)
To continue, once again Javi and I asked ourselves if we were truly in the right state of mind to lead this retreat and once again Javi said YES. Thank God we went. We met amazing couples and we regrouped - it was like another St. Augustine trip but even BETTER. We made new friendships and strengthened others. We were reminded that even in the darkest times what is important in life and in OUR relationship as a couple-communication and our faith.
So today remind yourself about what is important and always know that God is with us - even when he changes our plans.
