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Maryland Catholic couple reflect on faith, marriage, and their family

Dallys and Jason Cochran, at right, pose with their sons Antonio, 11, and Sebastian, 13,  at left, after the Annual Wedding Anniversary Mass to Celebrate the Vocation of Marriage on Feb. 11 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The annual Mass is sponsored by the Office of Family Life of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. The Cochran family members are parishioners at the Shrine of St. Jude in Rockville, Maryland. (CS photo/Mihoko Owada)

Love can manifest itself in a variety of ways. Some people discover that love found them when they weren't even seeking it. This seems to be the case for Dallys and Jason Cochran, parishioners of the Shrine of St. Jude in Rockville, Maryland. 

Dallys Cochran is a paraeducator for Montgomery County Public Schools and Jason Cochran works for the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service. They are both involved in their parish and teach faith formation, and their sons Sebastian, 13, and Antonio, 11, are altar servers. 

The couple met in 1999 at the Saint Sebastian Fair in Ocu County, Panama, claiming it was love at first sight. Jason was a Peace Corps volunteer living nearby, and Dallys was from a nearby town and went to the event with her sister and a family friend. 

“It’s like a movie, where our eyes locked across a very crowded scene and something happened,” Jason said.

“I could hear the violins playing, it was so special,” she added. 

This would end up being the start of their relationship, and eventually, marriage. 

“I got up the gumption and went to talk to her, we introduced ourselves,” Jason Cochran said. But being the late ‘90s and the rules of the Corps, they did not have cell phones to connect.

“My way of communication was a public phone in the town square, she didn’t have a public phone in her house,” Jason Cochran said. 

They lost touch for about six months until they reunited at a dance through a mutual friend.

“We literally haven't been separated since,” he said. 

They dated in Panama for about a year, until he finished his service and returned to the United States, which involved a lot of visits throughout the long-distance portion of their relationship. 

“We did long distance from 2001 through about 2003. I was working on my master's, I did my research in Panama. I'd come back for about two months a year to Panama, but I was up in Canada doing my master’s program, then when I came back in 2003, as fate would have it, I got a job with the Peace Corps down there, finished my master's, and we got married the summer of 2003,” Jason Cochran said. 

The proposal involved a restaurant, their song, and a lost cell phone. His friend was dating a singer/composer in Panama who Jason Cochran tracked down and asked to sing “Allá en el Campo” at the restaurant he was taking his soon-to-be wife to dinner at before he proposed. There was a blip in the plan, however, as Jason Cochran left his cell phone in a taxi cab earlier in the day.

“We’re at the restaurant, and I had no way of communicating with the guy, and I’m getting really nervous…and he’s sitting in the car, waiting for me to call,” Jason Cochran said. 

“He was acting so weird,” Dallys Cochran said. Eventually, Jason Cochran excused himself from the table and went to the parking lot to find the singer and get the plan back on track. Eventually when he finally was able to propose to her, she was so excited hugging and kissing him, she forgot to answer.

“It was a ‘yes,’” Dallys Cochran confirmed. 

Their Catholic faith has been an important aspect of their marriage and life together.

“I talked to God every day asking for a person that would be religious, that would share the same values. I remember praying every day, so that day when we met was very special. It was the Saint Sebastian fair, and my great-grandpa’s name was Sebastian. I always thought when I have my first kid, he is going to be a boy, and I'm going to call him Sebastian,” Dallys Cochran said. 

Jason’s uncle, Father Mike Krenik, a priest in Minnesota, flew out to preside at the wedding of the couple in El Valle, Panama. As they traveled and lived in various countries in South America and Europe, they started having children. Their 13-year-old son Sebastian was born in Panama, while Antonio, their 11-year-old, was born in Colombia.

Father Mike Krenik, a Minnesota priest, presides at the wedding of his nephew, Jason Cochran, to Dallys Cochran in El Valle, Panama in 2003. (Family photo)

“Our Catholic faith is fundamental to who we are, and [Dallys] is extremely religious and Catholic, and it’s central to our family. She’s the one that grounds us in our faith and our family, and keeps us focused…we pray the rosary together as a family,” Jason Cochran said. 

Dallys Cochran spoke positively of her husband’s example in the family as a servant leader. 

“He's a great human being. He always works for others first. He's the first one waking up in the morning, making sure we are ready to start the day, and he's the last person going to bed. He does that for the community [and] for his coworkers, everywhere he goes…he has to try to [make] this world better, he does that every day. He's amazing. It's impossible not falling in love with him. It's like the first day, every day with him, I love him so much,” Dallys Cochran said. 

The Cochrans do have some advice for those considering tying the knot. 

“The big goals in life, they need to know what they want from life. What do they want to [do] in their career? As a family, what do they want? Do they want a house? Kids? Pets? Even pets, it’s something that you need to know if the other one is going to be okay with that,” Dallys Cochran said. 

Jason Cochran said compromise is key, as well as turning to faith.

“I think having a focus and not being afraid of hard moments and hard conversations, I think that's where faith comes in. Especially the Catholic faith, we don't don't preach that life is going to be happy, [hunky]-dory, rainbows, lollipops and Coca Colas. We say there’s going to be hard moments and you can get through them with your faith,” Jason Cochran said. “Take your time and make sure you really know the person, there's not a hurry.”

Jason and Dallys Cochran pray with their sons Antonio and Sebastian during the Annual Wedding Anniversary Mass to Celebrate the Vocation of Marriage on Feb. 11 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. (CS photo/Mihoko Owada)

And when it comes to their sons, Dallys Cochran has some hopes for their future significant others.

“What I hope for when they get a person, is that they cry together, laugh together, and work together, and share the same faith. Because that’s important for us,” she said. “They see us when we have bad days and when we have good days, but they see us holding those bad days together.”

While Jason Cochran said his relationship is “storybook,” it’s important to him that his kids know it involves work to get there.

“Absolute deep respect for your wife, as a woman and a partner and your best friend, and as an equal and give her her place. Do dishes, do housework, help out around the house, and understand where she's coming from and treat her with the utmost respect,” he said. “Know that their happily ever after can and will exist.” 

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