Meet Our Members Mary Lynn and Tom Ott

Life is a journey to heaven. Tom and I have been blessed to be able to take that journey together. We began our marriage in love and with the sacrament of Holy Matrimony in a little country Catholic church in Brussels, Ontario Canada. It was a beautiful day, but our marriage preparation was practically non-existent. Neither of us fully understood marital morality and began contracepting immediately. We soon experienced a desire for children, but my fertility showed no sign of ovulation after coming off the pill. We conceived our first child with the help of fertility drugs. During postpartum, we began looking for alternative methods to space our children. At this time, Natural Family Planning (NFP) entered our conversations. We were fully
onboard! As life was busy, we took one class out of four from The Couple to Couple League (CCL).

We were soon overjoyed to be pregnant again, this time with twins. However, our babies were born early and one of them was born with a physical disability. We continued to embrace NFP, but to our surprise– after failing to follow the rules– we conceived within a year. The pregnancy and delivery were easy, and we praised God for this blessing, but questions arose. Very deep conversations occurred about our ability to practice NFP. It became a division in our relationship as we viewed the issue differently. Contraception even became part of the conversation again. Through prayer and actively discerning God’s will, we continued practicing NFP and learned that abstinence is a sacrificial prayer. Our relationship with God grew, our love for each
other grew, and our love for our faith grew.

Raising our four children was a busy time. We were learning the rhythms of life and family. And yes, we were joyfully in the rhythms of NFP. We knew NFP was such a misunderstood treasure of the Catholic faith that we began to promote NFP to engaged couples.

My viewpoint that NFP is a personal Catholic choice changed in one night. As an RN, I worked in the Post- Anesthetic Care Unit about once a week. In this unit, we took care of many patients who had tubal ligation procedures. One night, I took care of a woman who had a tubal ligation, but also an incidental abortion. This tragedy haunted me. Babies are babies no matter how small. I quit my job, and my husband and I became NFP teachers through CCL. Women deserve better. Couples need knowledge of their own fertility.

In the family arena, our older children began praying for siblings. In time, three more children arrived. The journey of life continued. In our NFP ministry, Tom and I have been living, promoting, and teaching NFP for twenty-nine years. We teach many engaged couples NFP and what the Catholic Church teaches about sexual morality. Tom and I are blessed that we can spread the good news of marriage and Natural Family Planning and in the process, help prepare couples in their journey in life to heaven.