One Year of The Catholics Next Door

On the top of the following image, you’ll see a picture of us from one year ago today. On the bottom is a picture of us today as we prepare for the 1-year anniversary launch of The Catholics Next Door on The Catholic Channel (Sirius 159/XM 117). Jennifer aged much better than me.

In the picture on the top, Jennifer was a few months pregnant, and I was about 25 pounds heavier. We had no idea what it was like having a girl in our house. We had not yet had our tiny screened-in porch converted into a tiny little bedroom for our soon-to-be-born-daughter.

We had no idea of all the great people we’d get to talk to either as guests on the program or listeners who would call into our show over the next year. We had no idea of the immense support we’d receive from everyone who listens to the The Catholics Next Door. We had no idea of the adventures we’d encounter over the next 365 days. We had no idea how we’d struggle and grow and sometimes even lose sleep over some of the difficult topics we’d need to tackle on the program.

We had no idea how much we’d laugh.

And we had no idea how sharing our faith on The Catholic Channel would bring us so much closer to God as we proceeded on our own faith journeys. And we had no idea how much talking to each other for three hours a day would strengthen our marriage.

Thanks to everyone who has been a part of The Catholics Next Door over the past year: Adam (our producer), Jackie (our board op), Lino (who originally hooked us up with our bosses), Paul (our original board op), Emily and Mike (who ran the boards for our original audition shows and have always been immensely supportive), Rob and Joe and Craig (who have been nothing but supportive from day one of putting a couple on the air and letting them fight it out – LIVE), everyone at SiriusXM and the rest of the hosts and producers at the Catholic Channel (Gus, Bob, Greg and Lisa, Fr. Dave, Jarred, Lou, Brett, Robyn, Ryan, Raven, Brian, Peter, Samantha the intern, and anyone else I may have accidentally forgot), to our folks, to our two good friends who help care for Lily when we’re on the air, to Fr. Leo Patalinghug, Fr. Bill Kessler, Fr. Michael O’Loughlin, Fr. Jay Finelli, Fr. Roderick Vonhogen, Fr. Jack Durkin, Fr. Ricardo Bailey, Fr. Frank Pavone, (Man – I shouldn’t have started a list because now I can’t stop and I know I’m going to forget somebody), Steve Weidenkopf and Patrick Madrid, and (okay, I’m going to wrap this up before I work myself into a corner) every single person who has called into the program or been a guest on the show. But most importantly – thanks to YOU for tuning in everyday and keeping us employed so we can continue to feed our children. Or at least try to.

Your prayers and support have meant the world to us and we cannot thank you all enough.

P.S. Shameless plug here – but if you don’t subscribe to Sirius/XM and you’ve never signed up for the free 3-day trial, today might be a good day to do so. Look for the link on the right on The Catholic Channel page that says, “Get a Free Online Trial.” Should be a fun show (God willing).