This post is long overdue and has been sitting in draft form as we adjust to the reality of being parents of two children.

In the annals of a person’s life, there are banner days that rise to the to like weddings, baptisms, graduations, promotions, etc. Earlier this year, our family had one such day when my then-pregnant wife was welcomed into the Catholic Church.

Her confirmation was one of the happiest days of my life.

Given the pregnancy, signs of a potential early birth, and the growing Coronavirus pandemic, our priest wanted to move her Confirmation up before the Easter Vigil. In his mind, it would be better to do an unnecessarily-earlier Confirmation than to wait and have her miss the Easter Vigil.

So, on a the First Sunday of Lent, my wife was confirmed into the Catholic Church. This was the culmination of a years-long journey of hers and, frankly, a lot of work to get through the RCIA program while sick, tired, and pregnant with a nearly two year old running around all day.

Her decision to become Catholic was largely a private matter, so I won’t go into the reasons on this forum, but her grace, poise, and single-mindedness once she made up her mind was amazing.

My wife is the most beautiful woman in the world. But watching her at 34 weeks pregnant navigate a solo Initiation rite into the Church was a blessing I will remember on my deathbed.

We had very little notice that the Confirmation rite would go forward under these special circumstances. I worried that the rushed nature of the rite would rob the day of its significance. And yet it did not. Despite my dad, brother, sister-in-law, soon-to-be-sister-in-law, and grandparents not being able to be there due to the short notice, in some ways, the simplicity of the ceremony conveyed that such things – conversions to our True Faith – should be more commonplace.

She chose St. Gianna as her Confirmation Saint. Saint Gianna was an Italian pediatrician. Her fourth pregnancy put her in a precarious position. As described by another site:

“Her doctors discovered she had developed a fibroma in her uterus, meaning she was carrying both a baby and a tumor. After examination, the doctors gave her three choices: an abortion, which would save her life and allow her to continue to have children, but take the life of the child she carried; a complete hysterectomy, which would preserve her life, but take the unborn child’s life, and prevent further pregnancy; or removal of only the fibroma, with the potential of further complications, which could save the life of her baby.”

Saint Gianna chose to remove only the tumor, creating a high chance of her own death. And, indeed, Saint Gianna did die from complications from the childbirth. Her daughter — the one she saved — followed in her mother’s footsteps becoming, you guessed it, a doctor.

Can you imagine the love?

When my wife told me she would be choosing Gianna as her Confirmation name in honor of Saint Gianna, I asked her why. She told me the story, and I could see her connection to the saint’s story in her eyes. My wife’s dedication to her family and children is unceasing. Everyone in our lives knows this, and it is evident in every decision, both big and small, that she makes. I cannot think of a better Saint for her to have selected given all the sacrifices she’s made for our family.

And wouldn’t you know it: because of the government crackdown on Mass due to the pandemic, the other members of my wife’s RCIA class were not Confirmed for months after the Easter Vigil. So, despite the rushed nature of her Confirmation, and in some ways because of it, my wife joining the Catholic Church is one of the best things I’ve ever witnessed.

Welcome, wife!