The results are in!

A couple of weeks ago we met with Mr. Dick Phillips (our contact at the church who reviews the results of the Marriage Prepare test) and learned quite a few things about each other. More than we thought we would just by taking this test. I'll be the first to admit that I wasn't keen on the idea of taking some test to determine our strenghts and weakness. Partly because I'm stubborn and the other being that a member of my own family had reviewed results with other couples at one time and I remember thinking, "How awful that you have to tell a couple that they shouldn't get married or that they will have a tough time with their relationship if they do decide to get married". As usual, my perception (and fears) were skewed and I'm happy to say that I'm extremely glad we did this. I *highly* encourage couples to take this test before they are married.

Both Mike and I learned that we rank very high overall on having a healthy relationship (among the other 2,000 couples that have been married for XX amount of years). Both of us also scored high on good communication within our relationship and with each other (yes, those are two different things). Both of us are very independent (can be good or bad) and we both have a very low tendency on avoiding topics, discussions, problems, etc. One of us (I won't name names - OK FINE, me)is very stubborn. The other (Mike) is also stubborn but not nearly as much as I am. Something we both already knew, I just didn't realize how much more stubborn I was than Mike. I'm also very unlikely to lean on someone else for help. This makes complete since to me because that's how I was raised but, it didn't really hit home until I read how we answered on certain questions. That's a definitely a weakness that can be worked on.

We both didn't realize that although we've talked about children, we'd never REALLY talked about what our roles as parents would be. How were we going to handle discipline? Would one of us be overprotective and the other one not so much? How would we handle? What were the roles and responsibilities of being parents?

We came home with some homework but not dreadful homework by any means. We also learned it's not the quantity of time you spend with each other that makes you stronger as a couple, it's the quality and the communication. Great lessons learned:).