Why CANFP

My wife and I navigated the streets of San Francisco to attend the 2015 Male and Female He Created Them held at St. Mary’s Cathedral. You read that right: San Francisco/Male and Female He Created Them! The night before the Conference Beth and I celebrated our 32nd anniversary at the rooftop restaurant in our hotel. We asked the waiter the best way to walk to the Cathedral, several blocks up. He looked out at the City, contemplating the streets below. One by one he eliminated each route as containing distinctive hazards. He finally gave up suggesting a good path but we made it to the Conference safely, carefully watching our step!

CANFP Board Member, appropriately-named Archbishop Cordileone (Heart of Lion), hosted this beautiful, deep, fun event. The speakers were all people of incredible integrity, intelligence and boldness, speaking of ways to heal so many of the ills that rob marriage and family of the love and joy God intended for us.

We were hooked. Of course, this was just the icing on the CANFP cake. Long had we benefited from the incredible work of Sheila St. John, Executive Director, and the network of NFP and fertility experts she opened up to us. As I have written before on these pages, I credit God first and CANFP second for enabling the successful births of our youngest three: George, Ted and Molly. They all followed a series of miscarriages and the early birth of our son, Samuel Francis (RIP) that led us to Sheila who then connected the dots and plugged us into some CANFP affiliates expert in correcting Beth’s hormonal anomalies.

Since joining the Board after the San Francisco Conference, Sheila set our sails for the boldest effort of CANFP’s history, the huge Celebrate Humanae Vitae Conference in July, 2018. CANFP brought together the finest speakers in the country who care deeply about God’s design for life and family. Several of my kids jumped in to help at the event as well as attend the talks and events there. Their lives were greatly enriched as a result. My daughter, Ali, was working the registration desk. Unbeknownst to us she had morning sickness at the time and arranged to have some blood tests done locally, near the Conference, as she too had used CANFP as a resource for some challenges. She then ran into Dr. Stigen, her doctor for both Lizzie, her first child, and Peter, born several months after the conference. You can see Ali’s story, as well as my own, at our CelebrateHV.com website under My HV Story.

Being on the Board of CANFP has been rewarding in many ways but most importantly because it has put me up close and personal with so many who have experienced wholeness, healing and, yes, miracles, as a result of the loving work done to help educators, ministers, the engaged and spouses learn and love what God has created in us and for us.