Anyone waiting to hear decision regarding Annulment?

[Carolyn]

I guess I am just looking for prayers and support.
My fiance is in the annulment process. I have never been married, he was legally married for 13 months, lived together in the same household for only 4 months.

Currently the witnesses have just sent in testimony and now we just wait. It is agonizing. So many people, Catholic and non-Catholic alike think that we are nuts for doing this… they don’t understand! I know it’s the right think to do, but it’s going on a year now and it’s hard to trust and not worry.

I know there are people with worse problems in the world. People ask what I will do if the answer is “no”. I try not to think negatively, and I try not to think positively.

Is anyone else going through this?

Please pray for me, I will pray for you.

 

[Schana]

Carolyn

Oh do I know your pain! My husband and I (he a cradle catholic, me a convert) were both married previously and went thru the annulment process. It was very time consuming! We too got into it with some of our family (mine more than his since none of mine are Catholic) about why were would ever put off our marriage until some church guy says it’s ok to proceed. It gave us such a wonderful chance to quietly evangelize our reason for wanting to have the proper disposition to be married in the eyes of the Church and hence the eyes of God.

I can’t tell you to be patient, because if you are or if you aren’t isn’t going to make things go faster. I can’t tell you not to fret because sometimes there are delays that make you want to scream out to God “why???”. I know, because we had a dely in my husbands (fiancé at the time) and it was so painful and I did scream out at God.

What I can say is this……it is so very worth waiting. The day we married (2 year wait for both of ours to get done) we knew in our hearts that we fully understood the vocation of marriage, which neither did in the first and we both were able to put closure on the guilt of failing in our first marriages and move on to forgiveness if that is what is needed. For both of us, I think it allowed us to take responsibility for our part in the failure of the marriages, which allowed for more tolerance of the ex-spouses, which lead to forgiveness. It really is freeing. We got the wonderful opportunity to share in that freedom every time someone said “why don’t you get married civilly and get the marriage blessed when the annulments are done.” We got to share why we wanted to listen to the Church, and we got to explain that if we did that, we wouldn’t be able to receive communion and to us, communion was more important than a marriage license.

All in all, it really does help to make an impact in your life the responsibilities of the Sacrament of Marriage.

May your love for our Heavenly Father always prevail, and may He give you each day the strength to persevere in this challenge, this cross. Bear it with pride, for you are in good company when it comes to carrying a cross!

 

[puppylove]

My husband and I, both cradle Catholics, married civilly 2 months after beginning our anullment processes. We did drop the ball during this time and it ended up taking 2 1/2 years for both our anullments to be approved. Even after the anullments were approved we waited 1 yr., 5 mos. to get our marriage convalidated. It was the biggest error I could have ever made. I say “I” because this was my choice. Our marriage has never been stronger since the convalidation. How particularly strange? I would trade 4 years of civil marriage for the past 2 months of blessed marriage any day, place or time. Hang in there. God has a plan.

Puppy