relationships

This is what a Christian mummy blogger's wife looks like.

Abby Wambach is a former professional soccer player. She’s represented the US at the Olympics, in FIFA World Cups, and is regarded as one of the greatest female football players of all time.

Glennon Doyle Melton is seemingly the polar opposite.

She is a “Christian mummy blogger”, also in the US. The author of books such as Love Warrior and Carry on, Warrior. She is the creator of online religious parenting community Momastery and the founder of Together Rising, a non-for-profit organisation for women and children.

On Sunday, the pair were married.

Mia Freedman talks marriage equality with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Melton, 41, was in white. She wore a beaded dress and a silver bracelet. Wambach, 36, was in a white suit with a red velvet jacket.

“When I fell in love with Abby, I was scared,” Melton posted to social media yesterday, alongside a photo of the pair at their wedding reception.

“I thought that my fear might be bigger than my courage, and that because of that size difference, I might miss out on my chance at happiness.”

When I fell in love with Abby, I was scared. I thought that my fear might be bigger than my courage, and that because of that size difference, I might miss out on my chance at happiness. This was so painful. One day, I was talking to my dear friend Martha Beck. I told her that losing this love would be painful, but that I was used to learning from pain. And Martha said: “Honey. It’s true that God teaches us through pain. But it is also true that God tries to teach us through joy first. You can keep choosing heartbreak and pain, Glennon. But you can also choose joy. God can use that choice too. And I actually believe that God prefers to use joy to teach us.” And so, for once, I chose joy. I have lived a long while learning from pain and God, it’s been a good teacher. I’m forty one, now. And I’m graduating to joy. I choose joy. You can, too. First the pain. Then the rising. Your courage is bigger than your fear. Love, G (Ms. Doyle-Wambach if you’re nasty) @abbywambach @elizabeth_gilbert_writer @marthabeckauthor

A post shared by Glennon Doyle Melton (@glennondoylemelton) on

ADVERTISEMENT

“I have lived a long while learning from pain and God, it’s been a good teacher. I’m forty one, now. And I’m graduating to joy. I choose joy.”

Wambach also shared her happiness, but did so through… clothing.

A photograph before the ceremony shows the retired athlete in a hoodie that reads: “Christian Mommmy Blogger’s Wife”.

This tho… @glennondoylemelton

A post shared by Mary Wambach (@abbywambach) on

ADVERTISEMENT

The pair announced their relationship via Facebook at the end of last year. Melton said it was “time to take a different type of leadership”.

“What the world needs – in order to grow, in order to relax, in order to find peace, in order to become brave – is to watch one woman at a time live her truth without asking for permission or offering explanation,” she told her followers.

“The most revolutionary thing a woman can do is not explain herself.”

Tags: