Our Story

In 2004, Vanessa was going on a mission trip she had gone on the past 3 summers with her home parish to St. Peter Indian Mission in Bapchule, Arizona. In that year, the parish decided to add on a retreat for some of the older kids and wanted college students to lead it.

Vanessa, along with Stephanie and Christine, started planning the retreat when they realized they needed some college guys to help out. Stephanie volunteered to find a couple of guys from the University Catholic Center at The University of Texas at Austin.

Stephanie asked Kraft if he would send an e-mail out to his Catholic fraternity asking for guys. Of course, Kraft said yes and sent the e-mail to the guys of Lambda Omega Alpha. Two guys, Fischer and Mark, replied that they would love a free trip to Arizona and agreed to go.

The girls, however, needed three guys. Stephanie asked Kraft to send out a second e-mail asking for just one more guy. In a quick moment and with little thinking, Kraft said he'd go. None of the guys knew what they were getting themselves into.

Kraft, Mark and Fischer drove from Austin to The Woodlands to stay over at Stephanie's house before the early morning flight to the mission.  When pulling up to Stephanie's house, the three guys were surprised to find out they were meeting new girls--Vanessa and Christine. As awkward as it was, at that moment, Kraft and Vanessa met for the first time.

During that week, Kraft & Vanessa worked with the kids and had a great time. The kids on the mission even "paired off" the guys and girls into "couples". The kids, without realizing what they were doing, paired Kraft and Vanessa up in a match that would last a lifetime.

After that week, even through the scorching Arizona heat, bad sunburns, and a skit where Vanessa made Kraft cover his face with mayonnaise, Kraft knew that Vanessa was something special.  Vanessa thought Kraft was...alright. :-)

On the plane ride back to Houston, Kraft worked up the courage to ask Vanessa for her - you guessed it - screename.  Not her phone number.

Shortly after that, they found out that the parish did not intend to go back to Bapchule. Vanessa decided to keep it going and recruited a sometimes not-very-reliable Kraft to help.

Vanessa and Kraft got into the habit of talking most nights.  Gwen, Vanessa's roomie, would get home and roll her eyes as she found Vanessa night after night on their futon twirling her hair as she talked to Kraft.  Poor Gwen had to listen to many a theological debate. 

After a year and a half of many relationship-defining-talks and lots of up and downs, Kraft and Vanessa started dating in January 2006.

After a very long five months, Vanessa graduated from Notre Dame and moved to Houston (which was infinitely closer than South Bend and a much shorter drive to visit).

Kraft and Vanessa coordinated Camp Bapchule 2006. It was important to keep their dating a secret from the kids and they did such a good job that most of the staff had no idea until the very end of the week!

Vanessa worked at Casa Juan Diego in Houston for a year while Kraft finished up at UT and worked at the University Catholic Center. After some discernment and prayer, Vanessa decided to leave Casa and move to Austin.  They thought it important to figure out if they could stand being in the same city together longer than a weekend.

In the months following they knew they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together and they knew marriage was on the road ahead. 

After what seemed an eternity, on Vanessa's 23rd birthday, they both took the day off of work for a nice, relaxed day together.  They went to Mass, had some lunch and then decided to stop by the Chapel at the Diocesan Chancery. The chapel is tiny, very beautiful, but only open during business hours, so they never have time to visit. [Kraft had woken up early to plant some tissues in the chapel.]

While praying in the chapel, Kraft was awkwardly waiting for another women to finish praying and leave. Vanessa noticed this and thought that Kraft was being rude. Once the woman left, Kraft, in a very nervous fashion, asked Vanessa if she loved him...a few of times.

Finally, Kraft dropped to one knee, pulled out a box and opened it to reveal his mother's engagement ring, the same ring he hoped Vanessa would accept. Kraft asked Vanessa to marry him and she said yes!