BISMARCK, ND (KXNET) — "Well, they say you can get anything from a convenience store, and I met my wife at a convenience store," Deacon Brent Naslund, Chancellor, Bismarck Diocese, chuckled.And life's journey took them well beyond the doors of that Fargo convenience store.Deacon Brent Naslund joined the North Dakota National Guard while he was in high school.He and his wife Jessica married nearly 32 years ago and went on to have their first set of children, a son and daughter.While in the guard, he took his young family to West Africa as part of the state partnership program for a year."My wife worked at the International School that our kids went to school, and they did service hours and service projects in the orphanage,” Deacon Brent said. “And the orphanage wasn't far from where we lived, and so it was actually my wife that got to meet the kids and work in the orphanage."That's when their lives changed even more."My whole life, I would have said I don't really believe in love at first sight, but there was something pretty instant, and I'd say love at first sight, when we met at the orphanage," Deacon Brent shared.As his time at the embassy in Ghana was coming to a close, so they had to work quickly to complete the adoption of their second set of children, a boy and a girl.When they returned to the U.S., Deacon Brent then went on a rotation to Kosovo for a year.Once again, change was in the air.Deacon Brent says he came late to his faith, and he thanks his wife Jessica for that."I was at a point in my military career where I could either retire or do something different, and so I felt a calling to go serve in the diocesan mission that we have in Kenya,” Deacon Brent explained. “And it's an education program for orphans, and we did that for about three years after retiring from the military."He says he continued to listen for God's call, and in 2016, he was ordained as a deacon in the Catholic church.Deacon Brent lived in Kenya at the time, and flew back to the states for ordination, and spent his first year as a deacon in Kenya.He says Africa is the polar opposite of America.While we have electricity and water in the US, they have something else in Africa."The pace of life is not so hectic in Africa,” Deacon Brent said. “They take relationships with each other a lot more seriously, because they have the time to do that. I think that their extended family connections are stronger than we generally will see here."Something Deacon Brent and his family were grateful for."I think we were fortunate to really experience a three year period where we didn't have this crazy, hectic schedule, and we were able to spend time as a family. Somebody said, ‘Well, what do you miss most about Africa?’ And I said, ‘I think I miss movie night because we had to, we didn't have to rush off to some practice, or we didn't have to rush off to a program,’" Deacon Brent recalled.Once his three-year mission in Africa was complete, Deacon Brent was assigned to Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Bismarck.Once again, change was in the air, as he and his wife started fostering children in Burleigh County.And, that's when they met and adopted their youngest two."You have kids come, kids go, and sometimes that's, that's a tough situation. Sometimes it's a beautiful situation, but I don't know how you can do that and not fall in love with them," Deacon Brent said.Which is exactly what happened with their youngest two children, ages two and four.The Naslund's run a busy household.Deacon Brent is the Chancellor for the Bismarck Diocese, overseeing 95 parishes in western North Dakota.Their youngest daughter has Down Syndrome, is medically fragile and was in and out of the hospital for the first year and a half of her life, so his wife Jessica left teaching to open a home daycare in order to keep their daughter healthier.So how do they do it all?"You kind of divide and conquer and figure out who's going to cover this, and it was going to cover that," Deacon Brent said.Deacon Brent Naslund, always listening for God's call, is Someone You Should Know.