The Harts
What is the silliest argument you have ever had?
P. Hart: I’ll go way back, like before we got married. So,being a Spanish teacher before we got married, I knew the difference between ser and estar. There’s a saying in Colombian Spanish that’s, “Porque eres así?” She would use it in a moment, and I would say you should use estar there. She was just saying why are you acting like that, but I would take it as that is like part of who you are. Because she was using ser and that was really stupid. It was a cultural saying I didn’t know.
K. Hart: I don’t even remember that. I would’ve said something like video games.
Do you have any Valentine’s Day traditions?
P. Hart: Yeah, we build date nights into our routine already, so we don’t really need to go out on Valentine’s Day specifically. We went out this year and we went to Costco, it was great.
How did you pick your two children’s names?
K. Hart: We chose names that are easy to pronounce in both English and Spanish.
P. Hart: Both of them have family names and bilingual names as well.
Mrs. Holmes
How has your life changed since you became a parent?
Holmes: Oh my gosh so radically, every day is both extreme joy and extreme exhaustion. Because just getting to hear him laugh all the time, it fills me up, there’s nothing better than a baby’s laugh. But boy those nights.
How did you decide on a name?
Holmes: So, I don’t know if you were there for my chapel last year, but that whole journey we went on just to even have our son was both so incredibly painful because of the amount of time it took and all the things we went through, and just incredibly wonderful. We saw God’s fingerprints on everything in reflection, and we really related to Abraham and Sarah’s story. So, the name Isaac just felt right for us.
How do you decide who changes the diaper?
Holmes: Whoever smelt it!
The Ternings
What’s the silliest argument you’ve ever had?
J. Terning: So basically, before we were married, Mrs. Terning’s fridge was full. It was always completely full, but there was nothing to eat. It was just a collection of condiments and pickles. You couldn’t make a meal out of anything in there. But there also wasn’t space to put any actual food.
C. Terning: Alright so I grew up in a family that loved condiments. And when I moved from my parents’ house to my apartment, I threw away what was expired and then literally just kept all of the leftover condiments, and I put them in this tiny fridge. I put them all in there and I’m just a girl ok. I just eat pickles and cheese and crackers. That’s what I can survive off of. And Mr. Terning is a boy and he eats a lot. This actually came up in our pre-marital counseling.
J. Terning: Yeah, it was conflict management training and that was the topic we chose. One of the solutions we came up with was to perform an interpretive dance to keep the condiment. I feel like all the boys, if any boys read this, would understand why fridge space is important.
How did you guys meet?
J. Terning: We got set up, basically by my employer.
C. Terning: He started working for the church I attended on a Good Friday service. I saw him and noticed him because the median age of the choir was 70. So, I saw a young, dapper man walk in and I went immediately to the choir robing room, and I texted my mom to watch the live stream. We never talked at all and I was like “wow, what a fleeting moment.” Then I didn’t hear anything, didn’t know he was, and then very instrumentally we’re set up. He was hired to run sound for a musical theater camp which is not something he normally does. Then the legend has it – no, the truth has it – that Joel walked in and the other lady who was orchestrating the entire camp took all of the little kids out of the room. She had all the kids scatter and she looked at me and said, “have fun!”
The Coopers
How did you guys meet?
S. Cooper: We met in Latin class in college. We didn’t talk to each other in the first semester and then I sent him a Christmas card over Christmas break. He met me at the door the first day back from Christmas break and said, “did you send everybody in the class a Christmas card?” and I said, “No not everybody.” Then he asked me, “Do you want to go out on Friday?” so we did.
Do you have any fun Valentine’s day traditions?
J. Cooper: So, we’re old, we don’t do anything for Valentine’s day.
How did you decide who changed the diapers when your kids were little?
J. Cooper: Who remembers these questions?
What do you guys like to do together outside of school?
J. Cooper: During our first year of marriage, we cooked a lot. We asked for cookbooks as our wedding gifts, so we’ve spent a lot of time cooking together.
S. Cooper: The first few years of our marriage we really only cooked a few meals more than once. Otherwise, we tried a new recipe every day.
J. Cooper: If I was trying to impress someone, I would make chicken cordon bleu.
The Mayfields:
How has your life changed since becoming parents of two?
Min. Mayfield: I would say my heart has just grown so much. Watching our son turn into a big brother has been so fun.
Mit. Mayfield: You learn more about the older child when you have a younger kid too.
Min. Mayfield: It is a juggle but man, do I love every second of it. Another thing is bedtime. It is so much longer now because I feed and put Charlotte to sleep, then we do bedtime with Porter. We each have a bedtime blessing for him, then we sing songs. I will say we’re already seeing the phases of how each stage changes and shifts as time goes on.
How did you decide on names for your kids?
Min. Mayfield: Porter is a family name on the Mayfield side. But also, here’s the thing. We were going to name him Everett. Then three weeks before he was born, I had an acquaintance of mine posted that she had a baby boy named Everett. And I said, “Nope can’t do it.” So, we pivoted to Porter, which Mr. Mayfield always loved.
