As time went on, the couple had two children, Rob and Sheri, while Bob was going back and forth to Vietnam. When Bob was assigned to Korea, the family went with him, living on economy so they could be together.
While in Korea, Bob found himself more drawn to the Catholic faith. He read books and got into passionate debates with an Italian priest chaplain on base.
“He would give books to Beverly that he knew I would read,” Bob said. “And I did.”
Bob realized that he had acquired “a set of false understandings” of the Catholic faith. Through logical analysis, “slowly but surely everything Catholicism taught made sense,” he said.
Beverly never put any pressure on him, he added; rather, “it was truly the Holy Spirit calling me to seek this out on my own initiative.”
Bob compared his experience with that of theologians Scott and Kimberly Hahn.
“Rome Sweet Home (the book chronicling the Hahns’ conversion) is exactly what I went through,” he said.
Bob was received into the Church March 25, the feast of the Annunciation, at the private residence of the papal nuncio to Korea.
“I was on fire from that day forward and it’s just been a continuous journey,” he said.
Bob’s conversion only increased the already happy bond between him and Beverly. In addition, his excitement for the Faith and for praying together “made such an impact on our children,” Beverly said. They would pray the rosary together, mapping out Mary’s progress from one place to the next.
After Korea, the family moved to Fort Bragg near Fayetteville, N.C. Beverly suffered three miscarriages in a row (in addition to one before Sheri was born) before becoming pregnant with James, the couple’s youngest son. After a difficult and dangerous birth, the doctors told the Wards they were still able to get pregnant, but if they had another baby neither Beverly nor the new life would survive.
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After using contraception for a while, Bob and Beverly realized they didn’t feel as connected to one another. When a priest pointed them toward natural family planning (NFP), it changed their lives.
“Ours was really a life/death situation and yet we really trusted,” Beverly said. “And NFP really works. Very conservative we were, but it works.”
Unable to have any more biological children, Bob and Beverly turned to Catholic Charities soon after moving to Springfield in 1980. They fostered 18 newborn babies over seven years, caring for the children anywhere from four months to two years.
Extremely active in the Faith, both Bob and Beverly taught different religious education classes. After attending a Marriage Encounter retreat, they decided to start doing everything as a couple.
Together, they taught religious education for 11th- and 12th-graders. For 12 years, they prayed regularly at the abortion clinic on Duke Street in Alexandria, Va. They did, and still do, attend the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. For the past 17 years, the couple has helped couples prepare for marriage.
Still, though, they were not done learning — and learning together.