Yesterday was a mega-huge day in the Martin household – definitely super-sized. Zachary took his first steps!!! And they were the cutest little first steps that I’ve ever seen. Instead of a confident stride, Zach’s walk was a bit like a quick little jig. He took fast, small steps that looked as if they might turn him in a circle. Then, when we all clapped and cheered for him, he – Mr. Loves Attention – dropped his head, embarrassed, like “ahhh, shucks.” Perhaps the best part was that Mike and my mom were also here to witness the historical event. “Why were they here in the middle of the day on a Monday?” You ask. Let me tell you.

Mike and I made our radio debut yesterday afternoon. It was exciting and stressful and nerve-wracking and fun all at the same time. We first met Lori – the Program Manager. We’ve spoken with her on the phone a number of times to share our pre-interview info. Lori is great; she and I hit it off right away. She’s been married for nearly 20 years and has two sons too. We were both obviously excited to meet face to face, although one of her first statements confused me a little bit. “I thought you would be blond,” she said. “From our phone conversations…I really expected you to be a blond.” Hmmm….apparently I sound like a blond. Huh! Go figure.

We met with Father Bob – a super nice guy and the host of “Conversations with Father Bob” – for about 30 minutes before recording. He gave us an overview of the questions that he would ask and got to know us better. There was another guest for the first half hour (a local State Representative) talking about the mobile home crisis in the area. Then, it was our turn.

There was a lot of joking before the recording session began, that I’d have to put duct tape on my mouth (or maybe they’d just turn off my mic), so that Mike would have a chance to say something, to actually get a word in. Ironically (or probably because of this), Fr. Bob started the interview asking Mike many questions about Engaged Encounter. “What is it?....What can the engaged couples attending expect to experience on the weekend?....What was our EE experience like?....What did we get out of it?” etc. Mike did great. I could tell that he was a little nervous (as was I). So, he started a tad slow, but loosened up in no time. I was very proud of him.

It didn’t take long for the interview to get more personal – as we knew that it would. The motto of EE is “The wedding is a day, the marriage is a lifetime.” Most people spend months preparing for their wedding but the thought of spending an entire weekend focusing on their relationship, is a foreign one. One of the reasons that we got involved with EE is because of our wedding experience – it wasn’t ideal. We’ve been through more in the 5 ½ years that we’ve been married than some couples face in 15 years.

We told Father Bob about Mike going through Cancer in the first year that we were married and spending our wedding night in the ER. (“As we tell the couples on the retreat weekends, we don’t recommend booking the ER for your wedding night – it is not the most romantic setting to begin your marriage.”) We certainly didn’t get to enjoy life as newlyweds nor was there a “Honeymoon phase.” We kick-started our marriage with the “in times of SICKNESS” and “for worse.” If Mike and I didn’t have the support system that we have – from our incredible family and friends – and the belief system that we have (relying on not only each other but God), then we may not have gotten through all that.

At any rate, we shared this stuff with Fr. Bob (as we do with the couples when we’re presenting on an EE weekend). I think we did a good job – the people in the room (OK, Lori – who thinks I sound blond, Fr. Bob and the sound engineer – it wasn’t like we had a big audience) seemed to enjoy my attempts at humor and nodded agreement and ‘good jobs’ in all the right places. It was all fine and good and went pretty well until the last couple of questions. Let me provide you with a little history first:

Mike and I have the saying that “we don’t have arguments, we have discussions. We don’t argue about disagreements, we discuss them.” Rarely have we yelled (and we can pretty much blame my post partum depression for that). But our discussions can be occasionally LONG. Oh, the irony. We spent ALL weekend DISCUSSING (leading up to this radio interview where we talk about marriage and the importance of healthy communication, etc.). So, I guess you could say, while we’d resolved the conflict that we’d had over the weekend and we were perfectly great and back to “normal” (whatever that may be), I was still a little emotionally rattled from it all.

So, Father Bob asked me the question, “Jenny, where do you see God’s grace in your life?” (Basically where do you experience the deepest love possible?). Right away, I knew it was all over. I was going to cry. I had to answer (because it IS my answer) that I experience God’s grace through Mike, through our marriage and the awesomeness that is my husband. I managed my response without completely letting on that I was tearing up, but Father Bob totally blew my cover! (‘Cuz come on, it makes for great drama to have a guest tear up during an interview)! He said, “Jenny, why the tears? I mean, Mike looks like an ordinary guy. What’s so great about him?” All the while, Father Bob’s got this big goofy grin on his face like “yeah! This is GREAT stuff.”

Unfortunately I think I got into the Oprah-ugly-cry – a BIG no-no. Granted it was on the radio and not TV so the estimated 200,000+ people who will hear me, won’t see me, but they…will…HEAR me. They’ll hear me attempt to squeak out my answer. Thankfully, I looked over and saw that Lori was totally crying sympathy-ahhh-this-is-so-touching tears, so that made me feel a little better. We’ll definitely be pulling on the heartstrings of the listeners. But I’m still completely horrified that I cried on the radio. This show will be broadcast three times on the local radio station; it will then be sent on to sister stations in Texas, Louisiana and also Toronto. Yes, I cried on not only national radio, but International radio.

Mike, trying to reassure me afterwards that it was totally OK that I became a heepy-weepy mess during my radio debut said, “Actually, I’m surprised that you didn’t cry earlier. I was expecting you to break down talking about my Cancer or the kids or your hospitalized bed rest. You held out for quite a while. Good job.” Great.