Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Marriage Prep Weekend-Part 2

OK here is the follow-up from Post 1:

Problem Solving: How do you solve problems in your life? When an obstacle is in front of you do you look for a way around it or do you fold your cards and give up??
These were some of the questions that were presented to us during the segment on Problem Solving. How will we as a couple overcome obstacles in our life and marriage?For example finical struggles, ailing parents, lack of communication, and one on one time once children come or we are busy at work. After hearing from the couples that were leading the retreat we were able to break-away and first talk about how we thought each other dealt with obstacles and what we need from each other in these times.

What a priceless conversation to have!!!!!

As we talked a BIG realization that I came to was that we were not just preparing for the
"immediate speed bumps" we may incur but we were establishing a healthy foundation for our future hurdles together. I want to give an example about problem solving in: Joey is a much more methodical thinker me; who has a reaction and emotion the minute I come across something. Joey may take 5 minutes to come to a feeling or reaction and that is something I have never understood but after this weekend I realized that he is taking time to make sure what he says is EXACTLY what he wants to say and he realized that I need a response from him so I know he is in it with me!

Why I Am The Person I Am Today: Have you ever asked yourself this question??? It was a large section that I think both of us weren't completely thrilled with tackling but getting a chance to really talk about our "PAST" was really good for us. Joey and I talked about the good, the bad, and the ugly. It connected us. It helped us communicate. When we broke away we were instructed to answer some questions:
1. Who has been the influential force in your life:
E response: My mom- as I get older I see her in me in so many ways. The way I want my house to look, the way I cook/entertain, the way I laugh, they way I love/cry. And it is an awesome thing!!!! She has given me so many memories and has shown me what unconditional love as parent looks like.

J response: Before I tell you (JOEY IS CREATIVE) Instead of writing Joey drew a picture of his Nana and Papa eating dinner. He described to me who he would sit by and various memories with the both of them. He told me why he choose them. He also described how he sees them both in his day to day actions.
At the end I really was wishing I could of meet his Papa(grandfather)

Below are the Bride/Grooms thoughts of the weekend:

Bride: First I want to thank God because I know very strongly that he is present in our relationship and that he was with us this weekend as we grew together. I want to thank Joey for being an extremely ACTIVE partner during this past weekend. Often times I would look around the room and see men that were so not interested in it. Joey, you were so thoughtful, considerate, giving,funny, and loving. I walked away loving you in a completely new way. I want to thank Wrigley for being an awesome dog and not having any accidents while we were gone for the majority of the weekend (this I worried about). I want to thank my mom and grammie for giving me the pep talk before this and for praying for us while we were attending this retreat. Prayer is such a powerful thing! Believe!

Groom: As Erin stated, I would like to thank God also, I think the more and more Erin and I talked this weekend, the more and more we realized how God was present in our lives together. I want to thank Erin for going through this with me, there were many other ways we could've spent a weekend at home but you were very open and honest with me. I walked away loving you so much more and know that we will be able to work through whatever life throws at us and we built that foundation during this weekend. Erin must have short term memorty loss because Wrigley met us after the first day with a huge puddle in his kennel but he managed to survive the entire second day, so he was a pretty good dog for the most part. Thank you all who were praying for us this weekend. Erin and I appreciate them and we will both remember this weekend for the rest of our lives.

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