Sara Meyer
Our family story begins on July 1, 1995, when we, Rick and Sara, were married in Northfield, Minnesota. We headed to Texas on July 2, to start our life together as elementary teachers in the Lewisville ISD. By Thanksgiving, we learned that we were expecting our first child, the first of many surprise bless¬ings from the Lord.
Richard Luke was born July 20, 1996 and effectively ended Sara’s full time teaching career. Instead, Sara began working for Holy Cross Catholic Church, in The Colony, as Director of Re¬ligious Education and enrolled in University of Dallas to work toward her Master’s of Theology. Meanwhile, Hannah Eliza¬beth was born on January 27, 1999. Despite the challenge of living on just one teacher’s salary, we discerned it was best for Sara to leave her part time job to stay home with our young, rapidly growing family. Sara did manage to earn her M.Th. a couple of months before Joseph Nicodemus was born on August 30, 2000.
By now we realized that Rick was going to need to earn more money to provide for all of us. By the grace of God we survived on Rick’s salary and Sara’s guitar tutoring while Rick pursued his Master’s of Educational Administration at Univer¬sity of North Texas. He took his principal certification exam just two days before Maria Catherine was born on May 6, 2002. He soon found a job as an educational consultant for Region 10, conducting staff development for science teachers.
By the time we were expecting Rebecca Payton in the spring of 2004, we felt cramped in our 1400 square foot house in The Colony. We listed our home for sale during Holy Week and had an offer by Easter Sunday. Alleluia! We were blessed to find a wonderful home in Wylie and moved in just nine days before Rebecca arrived on May 29, 2004.
After living in Wylie for the past 3 ½ years, we feel like we are home. Luke enjoys attending Davis Intermediate, where he’s involved in choir and student council. The rest of the children choose to stay home with Sara, engaging in many social and ser¬vice activities with other Catholic homeschoolers in the area. Even though Rick has found a wonderful new job in Forney as an elementary assistant principal, he prefers a hefty commute to up¬rooting the family with another move.
Since moving to Wylie, we have attended a variety of Catholic churches and never really felt at home, often returning to Holy Cross for important events like the baptism of Emma Joan, who joined us on March 7, 2007. One day a good friend told us about Sacred Heart, noting the contemporary music, wonderful preaching and welcoming atmosphere. We attended Mass here for the first time in May of last year and have looked forward to coming back each week. A few of us have even enrolled in the Sacred Heart Chinese School. We are grateful for our new parish where the St. Francis motto is so beautifully lived: Preach the Gospel always, and if necessary, use words, and we look forward to welcoming our newest blessing in August among our new brothers and sisters in Christ.