Nine months after tragedy came new life. 

Mariana (Mari) Kuhlman, 23, welcomed her son, Raphael Patrick, on July 18 — nine months after the tragic death of her husband, Nathaniel (Nate) Kuhlman.

“Nate, our son is here!” Kuhlman wrote on Facebook and Instagram. “I know you’ll be praying for him, for us each and every day, and he will know without a doubt how much his father loves him!”

Mari lost her husband, Nate, three days after their wedding. The couple was on their honeymoon on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia when Nathaniel fell and drowned while water-skiing, three days after their wedding. After attempts to revive him, doctors told Mari he wouldn’t make it. 

The couple met in October 2021 at Franciscan University, when Mari was a junior and Nate was a senior. They got engaged in December 2022 and married on Oct. 28, 2023. 

Nearly a month after Nate’s death, Kuhlman discovered she was pregnant after taking a test on Thanksgiving Day. 

“When praying the Lazarus Prayer, it had crossed my mind, ‘What if God answers this in another way, that I’m pregnant,’” she told the Register.

“I was so overjoyed that God would give us this gift of new life,” she said. “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.”

Mari first announced her pregnancy on Instagram on Jan. 14, Nate’s birthday. 

“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 wrote. 

Mari posted a photo of her and Nate’s newborn son on July 18 with a card indicating his birth at 9:19 p.m. and his weight at 9 lbs. and 11 oz. She included photos of family members holding the newborn baby. 

“God, I thank you for the gift of Raphael Patrick …”

The new mother thanked everyone who prayed for her and said she offered up her labor for the souls in purgatory and for everyone who asked for her husband’s intercession. 

She wrote, “We will be in newborn bliss, for a while :) continue to pray for us as we get to know each other …”