My husband calls this picture, "We are the World." He still thinks I married him to help do my part to promote world peace. LOL. Seriously, he is from Honduras, Central America and I am from Moncks Corner, SC. He's from a city and I'm from the country. His native language is Spanish and mine is English. We both attended North Greenville College and we were introduced to one another by my twin brothers. They were just freshman and I was a senior. They decided to invite all the international students home with them during Fall break because the campus closed and most internationals had nowhere to go. My future husband just happened to be in the group:) We met over that weekend and the rest is whirlwind history!
Its funny that when we met, I thought, "He's a great guy. He loves the Lord, but it would NEVER work between us." When a couple of my girl friends questioned my reasons, I responded with the excuses, "Well, he's not an American citizen and he's shorter than me." I admit that they were not very legitimate excuses:) My brother's girlfriend at the time put a sticky note on my door while I was out one day. It said, "Do not consider his appearance, nor HIS HEIGHT, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7 This verse combined with a few intense conversations with one another revealed he was the ONE for me and what was in his heart was far greater than my excuses. My husband shared with me his desire to return to his country to serve the Lord there, so I knew that when we said, "I do" at the altar that I wasn't just saying yes to a lifelong mate, but also to a life of missionary service overseas.
I think it is important to insert here that my husband spoke English. It wasn't his first language and we certainly have had a few laughs over the years with some misunderstandings, but we could communicate. I think that communication is one of the keys to any successful marriage. So, talk we did, and continue to do. I also think that every marriage is the combining of two cultures. Everyone is raised with their own traditions and disciplines and it takes communication and work to develop your own. We knew that our marriage would be uniting two countries and two families as well. We knew that it would take some extra work to overcome some differences. So, maybe, we even conversed a little more than most couples do because we wanted to make sure we were preparing ourselves for a lifetime of unity between these cultures. Over the years, it has been so much fun to create our own traditions and customs. However, there have been a few topics that it have become very apparent that we were raised cross-culturally and thus has created some CULTURE SHOCK!
1. Raising Kids
2. Holidays
3. Family
In each of these topics, we have blended our cultures to create our own unique traditions and customs that what makes us known as the Pizzati Family.
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