A honeymoon is meant to be a time of joy as a newlywed couple start their lives together. Unfortunately for Nate and Mariana Kuhlman, their honeymoon would end in tragedy. The two were married October 28 of last year and embarked on their honeymoon to St. Lucia right afterward. The young Catholic couple had met October 2021 while attending Franciscan University and were looking forward to spending the rest of their lives together. However, just three days after their wedding, Nate fell and drowned while skiing. Mariana was watching him from the shore when she took her eyes off for just a moment. When she looked again, the boat was racing in with Nate, while the boat’s spotter tried to revive him. “Nate! Nate!” Mariana recalled crying out to her husband’s lifeless body. “Come back! Please, please come back!” By the time paramedics brought Nate to the hospital, doctors reported there were no vital signs and Nate was declared dead.

Mariana and Nate’s mother, Heather, did not give up. They turned to social media to ask people to pray for a miracle. At Nate’s autopsy, surrounded by prayers around the world, they implored St. Lazarus to bring  Nate back from the dead. Yet despite their faith, Nate did not revive. Mariana was officially a widow, yet she and Nate’s family didn’t give up hope that God would still do something. Then, on Thanksgiving Day, Mariana found out she was pregnant with Nate’s baby. The two had been abstinent until marriage and had purposely arranged their wedding and honeymoon around a time when Mariana was unlikely to get pregnant. “When praying the Lazarus Prayer, it had crossed my mind, ‘What if God answers this in another way, that I’m pregnant. I was so overjoyed that God would give us this gift of new life,” she told The Catholic Register.

“I was wishing Nathaniel was here with me, but there is overwhelming joy. I could feel his joy. He already knew, but I was just finding out.” She announced her pregnancy on social media on Nate’s birthday, January 14. “Clearly, God had a plan bigger than anything we could have ever imagined. He answered our prayers, and prayers of those around the world, just in a different way than we had expected, but still the GIFT OF LIFE; the miracle we are so overjoyed to finally share with you all,” she said.

Mariana gave birth to their son, Raphael Patrick, on July 18, 2024. Raphael came into the world weighing 9 lbs. 11 oz. She announced his birth on Instagram. “Raphael patrick, my heart is exploding with joy at the fact that you have arrived! no words can express how much i love you already with your dada we always told each other how each and every day our love for each other GROWS every day,” she wrote. “nate, our son is here!”