Still Married

I was prepared for the possibility that our marriage would be legally nullified. It didn't seem likely. Still it was a possibility.

Our marriage certificate is displayed in a frame in our bedroom, next to a picture from our wedding. My sister-in-law Becky composed a poem for us, written inside a hand-made wedding card, and we've framed that and displayed it there as well. After Prop 8 passed, I would occasionally look at the framed certificate on the wall, and wonder if it had been transformed into a worthless scrap of paper. I wondered if we'd some day get another letter in the mail from the Riverside County Clerk's Office informing us that we were no longer married. It was a painful thought. For a while, I actually avoided looking at that part of the bedroom wall.

Still, few things in my life have ever been more clear to me than that getting married was the right thing to do. Few impressions I've received from the Spirit have been as clear and bright and strong as the impression that said to me: "Get to California as soon as you are able, and get married!" It was the right thing to do, regardless of what might have happened subsequently.

I'm grateful that the Supreme Court of California saw fit to keep faith with us and with and some 18,000 others who entered into legal covenants last year. Ultimately, for me, keeping faith is what this is all about: between me and my husband, between us and our son, between us and our families and our communities, and of course between us and the state. Not least, we keep faith with God by abiding in love that we express through enduring commitment.

The State of California might have broken faith with us. It still might. But it won't change my obligation to love, faithfully.