Growing Up Catholic

I was born in NYC into a very Catholic family. My parents weren't overly religious in fact I don not remember my father ever being in church nor my mother, other then weddings funerals and my First Holy Communion, and maybe my reconciliation. My grandmothers went to church. Grandma Jeanie when she was healthy enough and Grandma Nellie all the time. I never went to church much in fact in all my teenage years and young adult years I was wiccan.But then I grew up and things changed. When we moved to Alabama we found out there was no real catholic churches around here , plus Greg refused to go to a catholic church because of the rigidity and the reputation. We attended an Episcopal church when we could with Greg's schedule and that whole pesky i couldn't drive because I didn't know how thing.Eventually that faded out with a busy life and a growing small child.And then being pregnant and working full time in a restaurant there was no church for a few years.
Right after Brayden was born we were invited to a friends Baptist church for an Independence Day BBQ cookout and service. I had never been to a Baptist church before. It wasn't how I imagined it. Not even close. I thought like most catholics think of the crazy "praising" and laying hands and what not kind of thing you see in the movies. It was nothing like that at that church. It can get a little much sometimes but not like I had imagined. We never went every week. We did go most off and on for 2 years at that church. We stopped because i could not take the preacher railing on gays every week ( my pet peeve about ch Baptists they hate gays). A few months later we started going to a vary big very loud Baptist church about a half hour away.That was great until the pastor betrayed friends that we have known for as long as we lived here. Did them more wrong then I ever thought a pastor could. So we left and didn't go to church again for a few weeks.
After a few weeks we went to a church with friends of ours from the original church who had also left and whose son played tee ball with Kaitlyn. That was almost a year ago and we have only missed a few Sundays since.I am even a teacher for the Bible drill team there. Things all happen for a reason . I love my church. It makes me happy and it makes the Lord happy. Still have a problem with gays being attacked for how the Lord made them but that is a story for another day.