I was raised Catholic, but we didn't attend church regularly growing up. Our family experienced a lot of church hurt over the years, but we still believed in God.
I met my husband when I was 24 and our faith was something we always had in common, although we did not live in a way that honored that for most of our early relationship. We shopped churches for a short period and Tyler brought me to Coastal where we were welcomed with open arms. We would attend for short periods, then fall back into old habits, but were always drawn back to Coastal because it felt like home for both of us.
We started attending more regularly leading up to our marriage in 2016, then struggled with infertility and during this time, we didn't stay consistent with our attendance. In 2018, after several tests and our first round of medicine, we found out that we were pregnant. Our miracle child was born in 2019 and we started attending regularly because we knew we wanted to raise Janie to know Jesus.
Our church family has transformed our lives through Coastal Kids and our LIFE Groups, along with Sunday service. Our family has grown closer and stronger in our faith and each day when we look back on where we started versus where we are we are overwhelmed with gratitude.