Strong Foundations - Couple's Book: A Marriage Preparation Program for Catholic Couples

Welcome to Strong Foundations: A Marriage Preparation Program for Catholic Couples. The purpose of Strong Foundations is to help you help the couples in your parish do the hard work of creating a loving marriage with God at its center. This means helping participants discover their own values and beliefs, which play a powerful role in every aspect of marriage, and to show them how to integrate their two distinct values systems into one strong marriage. Thus the program focuses on compatibility and relationship strengths and weaknesses, as well as the common issues of faith and spirituality, family connections, cohabitation, careers, finances, intimacy, and above all commitment. Strong Foundations is also intent on helping couples define the role of God and faith in their marriage and encourages them to find ways to practice faith in everyday living prepare to communicate that faith to their children. Be assured that this program does not assume two people should be married just because they have expressed the desire to do so. It attempts to delve deeper into a couple s relationship, encouraging them to discern whether they should marry and how they will face marital challenges once they are married. For two years the authors have been successfully sharing Strong Foundations with couples in the Diocese of Alexandria Louisiana, with the blessing of their Bishop.

Holly Carbo and Mandi Chapman are both Nationally Certified Counselors, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists, and Licensed Professional Counselors. Holly is married to Michael and has four children, Briggs, Emily, Ben, and LG. Mandi is married to Kevin and has three children, Lily, Oliver, and Simon. Since the spring of 2010, they have been sharing Strong Foundations with couples in the Diocese of Alexandria Louisiana, with the blessing of the Bishop.