Going to a Wedding...Gonna Get Married...Again!!!!

Last weekend TJ and I got married again! Not many people can say they have done that.  There is a bit of a story behind it:
When we decided to have Keaton baptized we needed to get permission from a local church to have it done on the East Coast.  When we met with the priest at Holy Rosary, Father John, we agreed that in addition to having Keaton baptized I would also get confirmed and we would have our marriage recognized by the Catholic Church.

Here are a few pics from the baptism at St. Charles in Woburn, Ma. last June.  TJ attended catholic school here and was even an alter boy!

Neither TJ nor I have been very active practicing catholics as adults.  But now that we have a child it is important to us that he is exposed to religion and knows what it is all about.  I have also found a lot of comfort in attending mass this past year.  So going through confirmation felt like the right thing to do.  The confirmation ceremony was this past Monday.  I was very impressed by the homily that Fr. Mulholland gave during the ceremony (he is the Vicar for Clergy for Archbishop Sartain here in the Archdiocese of Seattle).  He talked about his time at WSU and his 1.9 GPA from all the partying he was doing.  He talked about how he went through confirmation and it didn't mean much to him until years later...and how we shouldn't wait that long to become fully committed and connected to the church.  He was very "real" and personable sharing his experiences.  The Catholic church has a reputation of being very outdated and it was nice to hear something so down-to-earth from such a respected authority.  I have enjoyed going to Holy Rosary and getting to know Fr. John, the priest there.  He has a good sense of humor and seems to connect well with people of all ages.

So now comes the wedding!  We considered being married in the church initially but since I was not confirmed we weren't able to.  A week ago I found out Holy Rosary wanted our marriage official before doing confirmation so we organized a very small wedding ceremony in a week. I wore my dress again and was very impressed that it fit 3 years later. Here are some pics from the first wedding...and the second wedding.....

It was a very different experience the second time around and I think we both listened more closely to the vows and realized what a big commitment marriage is really is. TJ also joked that he will have better odds of making it to our 25th anniversary, 50th, etc. since we now have 2 anniversaries to celebrate each year!  We also had to sign something saying part of that commitment is procreation and raising children....so hopefully God will be on our side as we try to fulfill that marriage obligation :) Of course the Catholic church had to sneak that in!  As you can see we do have our hands quite full with one but I know we could handle another!

A few more pics from the "big" day the second time around!  And it was another sunny day!  Good thing we found 2 witnesses to vouch for us!