"I was thinking about what we could do as a family to support him, to reaffirm what he had be doing," he explained. He decided to join the walk to commend his nephew and to support his mother and family.
Brilliant also joined out of concern for Moore's companions.
"Obviously this would be a very traumatic experience for them," he said. "I thought that it was important that they know that they were supported and that what they are doing is critically important for our country."
It is "critical," Brilliant said, that young pro-life advocates are trying "build a better culture." Their work "has reverberations around the world."
He cited his own experience of the United Kingdom. While the U.K. has a more secular culture and a less developed pro-life movement, he said, "already there are murmurings there based on what is happening in the U.S."
Brilliant joined Moore's group in Steubenville, Ohio two weeks before they finished. They continued to speak at various parishes, host pro-life events and pray at abortion clinics along their route, before joining three other groups of cross-country walkers for a closing rally in D.C. on Aug. 11.
He found the young people to be "really impressive" and "inspiring" for their seriousness about their faith and pro-life issues at their young age.
Brilliant thought of the walk as a chance for him to "sacrifice" and "to think of putting others before yourself."
"I thought it was a good opportunity to reaffirm the need for me to put my wife first. To lay down my life for my wife, for my family, as St. Paul says in Ephesians," he recalled.
He also found himself able to identify with those dealing with unexpected pregnancies after his experience on the road. Brilliant's future wife became pregnant with his eldest daughter when they weren't in a committed relationship.
"What was true for us, and I think in every case, is that the solution is not to kill your child," he said. "We felt that temptation."
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However, after their daughter's birth and four more years of discernment, they "finally got married" and had come to recognize "the incredible wisdom of the Church and its teachings about human sexuality."
"From that point, we've gone on to have a really beautiful family," he said. "If we had not had our first child, none of that would have followed."
Brilliant also had advice for those who are reacting to an unexpected pregnancy.
"It takes an incredible amount of courage in these situations, but in the end, by taking the slightly more difficult route initially, the fruits and the rewards are much, much greater."
Kevin J. Jones is a senior staff writer with Catholic News Agency. He was a recipient of a 2014 Catholic Relief Services' Egan Journalism Fellowship.