Samantha is a wife, and mother of three kids here aged 7, 4 and 2, and three little ones in heaven. A valued member of our team, here’s a look at her faith journey and motivation to join the YCM team.
Where did you grow up?: Melbourne
What was your experience of Catholicism growing up? My Dad is Catholic, my Mum a non-denominational Christian. Dad made sure he, my brother and myself went to mass every Sunday. I went to a Catholic primary school up to grade 4 and received the sacraments. It wasn’t until I left school that I really encountered Christ and became intent on following him. After a rough and stressful VCE, a good friend from school invited me and another Christian school friend to join a small group with her at her (protestant) church. I went along and spent that year meeting weekly with this small group who really, personally introduced me to our Lord. We prayed, studied the bible and talked lots about how to live our faith. Around the same time, I was in contact with some strong Catholics: a friend at uni, one of my cousins, another cousin who had recently converted, and another cousin who is a priest and who introduced me to JPII’s Theology of the Body. Their combined witness and the discussions we had led me home to the church, as I began to actually understand her teachings and her wisdom.
How did you meet your spouse? A friend from uni (the one mentioned above actually!) got some of her musician friends together to form a choir for her sister’s nuptial mass and asked my now husband and I to sing in it. At the time he was on holidays from the seminary. We became friends and got together later on, after he had left the seminary. To clarify – I was not the reason he left!
Where, when did you get married? 2009 in Melbourne.
What do you love most about being a mum? Would it sound silly to say ‘my kids’? Those moments when they ask intelligent questions, crack a big smile, say something funny, do something cute or make you think “Gosh! They’re so gorgeous!” I enjoy seeing them learn things, begin to grasp more sophisticated concepts and those moments where you notice that they’ve figured out something new.
What do you find the most challenging about being a mum? Getting the balance right between running a household, spending time with the kids and hubby, prayer, social contact, rest, personal down time, external commitments and everything else that makes its way into our lives and floods my brain and schedule.
Why did you join the YCM team? Coz Steph asked me to take over her Facebook page posts! But apart from that, I was a fan of YCM’s work, supporting mums on both spiritual and practical matters, with a thoroughly Catholic perspective. I also enjoy the chance to share my experiences to support other mums in the thick of Catholic motherhood.
What is your role at YCM? I proof/edit posts for the website, schedule them to ‘go live’ and post them on Facebook. When I get a chance, I write articles for the website as well.
What do you enjoy the most about the YCM network? I love how the YCM network is so full of mums who are serious about their faith and have such fidelity to the church and her teachings. While we may differ on many other things, our faith and values are common ground. It makes for a community where people don’t freak out and even understand you when you say you’d love a large family, that you plan on homeschooling or that you’d like to schedule meeting up around making it to weekday mass. The prayer support for each other has also been so active and heartwarming.
Originally posted 2018-04-12 15:00:37.