We got married Christmas of our senior year and shared with our families just a few months later at Graduation that we were pregnant. Having always wanted a large family Katie was pregnant for much of the next decade. We’d have 3 kids and 3 miscarriages in the first few years, we experienced the epic joy of childbirth and the crushing disappointment of loss. All the while, we were both pursuing our masters, working full time, renovated a few homes and acquired some rental property. We were staying busy, very busy, in Jesus name. Somehow convinced we were going to change the world. That said, it was a season where we felt isolated relationally, strapped financially and stressed as to how we make it all work.

But over time, our pace and lifestyle had created distance in our relationship, and we began to see the consequences it was having on our marriage. We were having a regular date night and intimacy was happening, I thought the tension we were feeling was normal. But in reality, Katie’s heart was slowly drifting elsewhere.

She’d been on bedrest with our first son and feeling distant from me while also emotionally engaging with the husband of a couple we were close friends with. What started as concern and care, dropping off meals and magazines, turned into texts and phone calls which changed everything.

Katie had given her heart to another man and was convinced that she didn’t love me anymore. Over the course of the next year, we saw God do nothing short of a miracle in our marriage. It wasn’t an easy process, often times it was three steps forward and two steps back. But God. He was faithful to fight for and restore us. He took us to a new place of friendship and intimacy that felt much like a new marriage with the same person.