Natural Family Planning has been such a blessing in our lives. At first, I was opposed to it. I thought the pill was the only option. Thank God a friend told me about NFP! It took me a while to understand the terminology as well as the philosophy behind the concept. After a few years of using it, I became aware of how trustworthy NFP is and how wonderful that it is both free and good for my body. At this point my husband and I decided to become trained to teach NFP to newly married couples. It was ironic how the laughing engaged couple in the back of the NFP room (us) was now training to teach others about things we never spoke about in public.
We saw the benefits but did not realize its full potential until my husband had a very serious health crisis and I had to become his caregiver for a year. I realized that what I was learning besides charting and tracking my own body signals was a discipline of putting God in the center of our lives and practicing selflessness on a regular basis. This selflessness translated into my role as caregiver. If I had not known about NFP, I would have become permanently sterilized after my husband’s illness due to the intensity of care needed for two little ones.
Thank God for the wisdom of our church. The hard times passed and what I thought was a closed chapter in our lives reopened and we welcomed two new babies into our lives. I cannot imagine our lives without them. Thank you to the Catholic Church and its insight in knowing that life is full of peaks and valleys and that time changes how we look on situations. The ground work was already laid for us through practicing NFP and all we had to do was step-it-up. The statistics for couples whose marriage survive this type of health crisis is less than 25 percent. We are happily married and now have four kids. We have been teaching NFP for 5 years and can personally testify to the value of selfless trust in God and the Church’s wisdom that it taught. I am grateful to the Diocese for teaching us NFP.