That's what I tell people who ask me why on earth I'm going through an annulment.

I was one ticked-off person when I first got the questionnaire (first from the Archdiocese of Chicago). I stomped and crabbed and sulked to my friends and family. Why didn't they ask us these questions BEFORE we got married? Why did they need to know all this stuff? My parents? My education? Our courtship? How dare them!

Also, I was embarrassed that, if I was going to be really truthful, I had to admit to sin. We didn’t live together before marriage, but we were sexually active and used birth control. Now I had to write it down and even swear to it. Swell.

So I put the damn thing away for a couple of years.

In the meantime, God was patiently calling me back to a closer relationship with Him. All the Sacraments started lighting up and becoming irresistible. So, even though another marriage wasn’t on the horizon for me, I began to value having it out in front of me as a future grace, should God will it (and I could just meet someone bilaterally symmetrical and Catholic!).

So that’s where I was when I contacted the Diocese of Joliet to begin the process all over again

- Therese Z