Welcome Home, Lawsons

Me, a blogger? SIGN ME UP!!! If you don’t already know me, here is a “Cliff Notes” version of my bio. I am Trish Lawson, a member and Elder of First Presbyterian Church of Valparaiso since 2018 and 2021 respectively. I am married to my husband John of 14 years and together we have 2 incredible children, Johnny who is 11 and Molly who is 9. We also have our sweet Lucy Belle, our 4-year-old Beagle-Labrador we rescued as a pup.

I grew up in the Roman Catholic Church and when I was old enough, I was given the choice to “see what else was out there”. If you know me, then you know I speak transparently and in all honesty in my teen years I did not make time for faith. Now I wasn’t a bad kid that got in any trouble (I was not about to face the wrath of my parents), I just chose friends, a boyfriend, school, work and did not leave room for God…But He certainly made time for me! Once John and I were planning our marriage, we had a “minor” issue…neither of us had a church we belonged to. We settled on a Methodist Church in his hometown of Whiting, becoming those “Holiday Members” of the congregation. John and I had always wanted to be parents and after a few years of fertility visits, we were pregnant with Johnny! I knew going into this pregnancy that I was high risk and wouldn’t you know it, I finally made some time for God (not my finest moment). But every morning on my way to work, instead of blaring the radio and holding my own one-woman concert for other drivers at stoplights, I was praying to God and asking him to please keep my baby safe… every single day for 9 months! March 5, 2010 Johnny was safely placed in my arms; and I thanked God for sending me this beautiful boy to raise and 2 ½ years later on October 2, 2012 God blessed us with Molly who had a much more challenging start to her life. She was born with a full internal Cleft Palate and Pierre-Robin Sequence and had to have a life-saving surgery at three weeks old. That surgery was followed by four more surgeries all before she turned three. During this time, I blamed myself for not being more faithful and even became one of those who tries to bargain with God, you know “If you do this then I will do that” (again not my finest moment). I did however start to toy with the idea of really setting down some religious roots for the four of us and after bouncing around a few churches that did not really hold my attention, Johnny at the time a Cub Scout had to earn a Duty to God patch. So we had to attend a small impromptu service at this very church on a Thursday night and it just so happened that the praise band was there practicing while we had this service. Watching Molly and Johnny dancing in their seats and not having the pastor shoot daggers at them (or me), Molly joyfully jumping up for the children's moment and them both pitifully begging me to let them stay for the “rest of the concert” (AKA praise band practice) I knew right then this was God’s simple way of saying, "Welcome Home, Lawsons!' Once I got to the car I called John and said, "We have a Church!" We showed up on the following Sunday, which just so happened to be Easter, and on May 16, 2018 we officially became members; and well, here I am today blogging!

Here at FPCV, I have a place where I (and the family) are surrounded by love, hope, peace and joy. Here we have a family we never knew we needed in our lives.

Much love,

Trish