How did you (Anne) and Colin decide to be open to life from a young age?
“This openness to life was something that was ingrained in me from a young age. My parents would talk to me about dating to marry. Marriage means being open to life because in our vows, you & your spouse agree to that on the altar. The openness of being open to life also comes with the discernment of if you are ready to get married. Colin and I got married before his senior year of college so initially we thought to wait to have a baby until He graduated; however, the most freeing decision we made was to give our marriage to the Lord and to give the gift of ourselves to each other in marriage. Through our openness to life, God blessed us and we had a positive pregnancy test before we had our wedding photos back.” -Anne Marie
How did you (Anne) and Colin prepare for parenthood?
“Colin and I took a class together before we got engaged called Philosophy of Love. It was with one of our favorite professors at Ave Maria University. We learned a lot about the proper response to the person. It is this idea of implicit memory vs. explicit memory. Explicit memory is like ‘yesterday I remember going on a walk’ and implicit memory is more so feelings and beliefs. Through this class, Colin and I got talking a lot about how are we going to treat our baby, what kind of mom do I want to be, what kind of dad do I want to be, etc. What we learned from that class was the biggest thing that we carried with us into our preparation of parenthood.” -Anne Marie
What does emotional attentiveness mean to you?
“To start, bringing up the phrase attachment parenting has a lot to do with emotional attentiveness and things of that nature was coined by Dr. Sears. When my husband and I were talking about the proper response to the newborn, attachment parenting was the quote unquote parenting style that seemed to fit with us most. However, not all women have this ability due to different reasons.
Attachment parenting is this kind of feeding into the attachment bond between the baby and her parents, primarily her mom for the beginning of her life. What it looks like to me is that I’m teaching my daughter how to have a secure attachment and how to exist in a safe space. In our family, we don’t subscribe to any kind of cry it out method or have her on a feeding schedule, etc. I am able to be with her all day long and that works for us. I know that we are teacher her a deeper reality about who she is, about what love is, and that we are always available to her. The biggest reason I’ve been able to succeed is because my husband [Colin] has completely bought in and is super supportive.” -Anne Marie
What happened to my dreams?!
“Throughout college I always thought that because I have all of these gifts and talents within the marketing and communications world that I wouldn’t be able to be a stay at home mom. As Colin and I started dating I was just so in love with him and what the Lord was doing in our relationship. I thought, ‘how could I not give this man and this vocation everything.’ In this season of motherhood, there is so much that is hidden in the home and it’s all the most priceless thing I’ve ever been a part of.
I love that the pro-life movement supports that having a baby doesn’t steal your life or your successes. To be fully present emotionally and physically to your baby is not a loss. Maybe that means you quit your job if your husband is working or maybe you work a less lucrative job to be home by 5PM It looks different for every family, but the sacrifice is so worth it.” -Anne Marie
What is one piece of advice that you want every young Catholic woman to know?
“Don’t let the reality of God’s love and what He’s done become a cliche because it’s relevant in every season of your life. To every woman, you are so loved with an infinite depth from our God.” -Anne