Meditating on my First Year of Marriage, part one.

     In October of 2013, I went to Rome. I went to try to meet Pope Francis to persuade him to consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I also wanted to tell him that when Mary said "Russia's errors would be spread", she wasn't meaning Communism. She was meaning the roots from which sprang the Communist system...evolutionism.
     I wrote over 50 letters, attended 3 papal audiences, and basically ran all over Rome for a month-and-a half, alone, trying to meet the people who could help me accomplish this meeting. That was an adventure I will discuss in another blog, but not today.
     Today I am sitting quietly and happily, in a room which is quite magical to me. I am at work, in the tutoring lab at Wichita Area Technical College. This is the room where I met my husband, my first day of work in August 2013, shortly before I went to Rome.
     He remembers seeing me on that day because I was getting a tour of the school and wearing my little sister Gloria's fedora. He said he remembers thinking, "Wow, look at that girl in her fedora!". That is one of his trademarks...he often wears a fedora or a hooligan! So it made an impression.
     I didn't get to talk to him that day, but I remember in the weeks that followed, up to October when I went to Rome, he would come in the tutoring lab and work on algebra on the computer. I remember thinking how warm he made me feel when he smiled at me, and how handsome he was in his fedora.

     Sometime in early October, a few days before I left for Rome, he said hello and started talking to me. I remember how relatable he was, and that I thought it was cool when he said he played guitar, and played drums at his church. I remember feeling a warmth from him like that I felt when around my family. He remembers thinking it was ok that I was Catholic, although he was not. I then remember thinking, "Oh, this guy sounds really neat. He is Christian and plays music like me! And drums like my dad. But nothing will ever come of it." I had already talked to so many men by this point, and had gone on so many first dates, but had always realized those relationships were not God's plan for me. I had begun to wonder if my vocation was to be a Sister. During that summer I had visited the local IHM order and investigated several others. However, I was still longing for peace, and felt like a wanderer...an unsettled vagabond.
     Ryan almost asked me out on this occasion. But he chickened out.
     After I got back from Rome in November,and settled in the peacefulness of my parents home (what a contrast from wandering Rome alone, having things stolen from me and being mistaken for a prostitute!), I decided it was time to return to work, so I called the tutoring lab. Ryan was actually in the tutoring lab when they returned my call. My coworker, Mary was on the phone with my mom, and she said, "Yes! Send Hannah back to us!". Ryan heard this and thought, "Yes! Send Hannah back!"
      After I returned to work, I saw Ryan a few times but was too busy tutoring in Math, Writing, Science, etc. to talk. Everything changed at the end of January. One day (I believe it was January 30th) Ryan came in in the afternoon. Oddly, I was the only person in the lab---no students, and I was the only tutor. I was reading my Bible (Douay Rheims version). Ryan saw me and began a conversation about his faith. He went to Great Plains Church, where he played drums with the worship team. I told him I was Catholic and went to St. Francis of Assisi Church. He knew St. Francis of Assisi, because he loved Rich Mullins, and Rich had talked about him. We talked a bit more. It was snowing steadily outside and the roads were getting dangerous. Ryan told me he had just taken his 7-year old son, Lelan, to see the new hit, "Frozen". "You know", he said, "We should go see Frozen together". "Ok", I said, smiling like he was, "We should."

     Our first date was amazing, as was every date after that. Ryan proposed on Easter, we married August 16th, conceived our 2nd baby (Lelan is my first) around September 4th, lost our baby to my Incompetent Cervix on January 17th of this year (his name is Samuel Joseph Edward Oster), conceived another baby around March 7th, and are now at 17 weeks. We have had loads of adventures together which I will discuss in other posts, but this is our family. Our Father is so amazing! Viva Immaculata! (The baby kicks as I say this) :)