Wedding bells are in the near future for Abby Wambach and Christian mom blogger Glennon Doyle Melton. 
 
 Melton, 40, was first to share news that the couple got engaged on Facebook with a black and white photo of herself holding hands with the United States soccer player, both donning large rings. 
 
 Get push notifications with news, features and more. 
 
 “Abby and I decided to hold hands forever,” she captioned the image on Saturday. “First, fiercely, and forever.” 
 
 Wambach, 36, posted the same photo for her 490,000 Instagram followers on Sunday. 
 
 “Happy,” the athlete wrote, adding the hashtag #iseethemoonnow. 
 
 The Christian author announced she had found love with Wambach just three months after she announced her divorce from husband Craig Melton, and two months after Wambach announced that she and her wife of three years, Sarah Huffman, would be divorcing following an April DUI arrest that forced the soccer star to confront her struggles with substance abuse. 
 
 “Feels like the world could use all the love it can get right now,” Melton captioned a selfie with the soccer star posted in November. “So today, I’m going to share with you my new love.” 
 
 RELATED VIDEO: Christian Mom Blogger Reveals Relationship With Soccer Star Abby Wambach 
 
 Since then, they’ve been regularly featured on each other’s social media pages. 
 
 On Saturday, Wambach shared a smiling selfie with the blogger. 
 
 “I actually don’t mind traveling when I’m with my girl,” she captioned the snap. “I am so lucky. Like for reals. That’s all.” 
 
 Melton also shared a heartfelt message to her now-fiancée in honor of Valentine’s Day earlier this week. 
 
 “And then one day it all makes sense. Every bit of it. And you can finally see your past as one long, blessed road leading you home. And you understand that every bit of it was necessary and that every bit of it was holy,” she said. “Thank you for being my home @abbywambach . I love us.” 
 
 Melton has long been an outspoken advocate for same-sex marriage. 
 
 “Figuring out my stance on homosexuality felt like a life and death decision,” she wrote in a 2013 post on her blog Momastery. “I know my Jesus, I love Him, and I think if he needed me to believe that homosexuality was a sin, He would have mentioned it.” 
 
 She added that she hoped that her coming out would help her three children, son Chase and daughters Tish and Amma, feel emboldened to be truthful with themselves and others. 
 
 “When Craig and I sat them down to tell them about Abby I started by saying: ‘In our family, we live and tell the truth about who we are no matter what, and then love each other through it — and I’m about to show you how that’s done,’ ” she wrote. 
 
 Melton’s coming out announcement follows a similar revelation by Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert, who revealed she had found love with her female best friend in a September Facebook post. Melton wrote about meeting Gilbert, whom she now calls a friend, in a blog post last September. ||||| In this file photo, Glennon Doyle Melton, author of the blog, Momastery, sits for a portrait in her Naples, Fla. home on Tuesday, August 30, 2016. (Photo by Scott McIntyre for The Washington Post) 
 
 Christian mom blogger Glennon Doyle Melton has announced her engagement to soccer star Abby Wambach. “Abby and I have decided to hold hands forever. Love Wins,” she wrote on Facebook. “Happy. #iseethemoonnow,” Wambach wrote on Instagram. The two have featured their relationship on social media since announcing it in November. 
 
 And then one day it all makes sense. Every bit of it. And you can finally see your past as one long, blessed road leading you home. And you understand that every bit of it was necessary and that every bit of it was holy. Thank you for being my home @abbywambach . I love us. A post shared by Glennon Doyle (@glennondoyle) on Feb 14, 2017 at 6:43am PST 
 
 This story was first published Nov. 14 after Melton announced they were dating. 
 
 Christian author Glennon Doyle Melton — known as the “ultimate confessional writer” for her honest portrayals of her struggling marriage, addiction and eating disorder — has opened up with another big revelation. 
 
 Her partner is a woman and that woman is celebrity soccer champ Abby Wambach. 
 
 The blonde pair smiled together in a photo posted Sunday night on the Momastery blogger and mom of three’s Facebook page. “Oh my God, she is so good to me. She loves me for all the things I’ve always wanted to be loved for. She’s just my favorite. My person,” wrote Melton, best known for her 2014 New York Times bestseller “Carry On, Warrior: The Power of Embracing Your Messy, Beautiful Life” and 2016 memoir “Love Warrior,” an Oprah Book Club pick. 
 
 Feels like the world could use all the love it can get right now. So today, I'm sharing with you my new love. https://t.co/3KuDQ4e0Su pic.twitter.com/6vvxBqNUj4 — Glennon Doyle Melton (@Momastery) November 14, 2016 
 
 Melton’s news comes three months after she announced her divorce from Craig Melton, her husband of 14 years, and two months after Wambach told the media she was divorcing Sarah Huffman, her wife of three years, in the wake of a DUI arrest that pushed her to confront her addiction to alcohol and drugs. 
 
 Glennon Doyle Melton has reiterated for years her position affirming that same-sex marriage is not sinful and celebrating love in various forms. A few Christian writers who champion LGBT rights in the church congratulated Melton on Twitter on Sunday night. (Another Christian mom and blogger, Jen Hatmaker, came under fire last month for announcing her support of same-sex marriage for the first time.) 
 
 [The high cost of popular evangelical Jen Hatmaker’s gay marriage comments] 
 
 In the Facebook post, Melton admitted to her 645,000 followers that yes, it’s been a quick transition to new love. She said her ex-husband supports her relationship with Wambach and that they make “beautiful, modern family” together: 
 
 “They’re lucky kids, to be surrounded by so much love. We have family dinners together — all six of us — and Abby cooks. (She is an AMAZING chef because Jesus loves me). We go to the kids’ school parties together. We are a modern, beautiful family. Our children are loved. So loved. And because of all of that love, they are brave.” 
 
 A second picture shows the two snuggled on a bench, with Wambach playing a guitar. 
 
 Parenting blogger and author Glennon Doyle Melton gives advice to followers during a Facebook live chat April 16, 2016. (Glennon Doyle Melton/Facebook) 
 
 Melton’s coming out follows fellow inspirational author and friend Elizabeth Gilbert, of “Eat, Pray, Love” fame. Gilbert announced in September she was in a romantic relationship with her female best friend, just two months after divorcing over the summer. 
 
 Both Melton and Gilbert, who had not openly been in lesbian relationships before, first shared their news on Facebook, discussed the importance of living their truth and referred to their new partners as “my person.” 
 
 The similarities reflect what fans immediately notice: Both women value transparency and share an open-life-memoir writing style. Both have undergone spiritual journeys, separations and sexual awakenings. 
 
 Glennon Doyle Melton (Scott McIntyre for The Washington Post) 
 
 The two confessional authors also share a connection in a woman so inspirational that her name has become shorthand for a spirituality of its own: Oprah Winfrey. Melton and Gilbert have appeared on her career-making book list and popular programs. During a personable Oprah Winfrey Network interview in September, Oprah called Melton a “breath of fresh air.” “Love Warrior,” Melton’s new memoir, is about the brokenness and healing around her husband’s infidelity. 
 
 Gilbert and Melton met for the first time last fall, but Melton has long admired and been inspired by Gilbert. “For the past decade she has been a minister to me,” she said. Together with Cheryl Strayed (of “Wild“), vulnerability researcher Brené Brown and progressive evangelical pastor Rob Bell — all among Oprah’s “SuperSoulers” — they launched a multimillion-dollar fundraising effort to help refugees. 
 
 Melton blends her healing and inspiration with her faith, and she’s toured to speak about her books at Christian events, including mainline Protestant and nondenominational churches. On her blog, Melton championed her United Church of Christ (UCC) congregation in Naples, Fla. (The UCC is a mainline denomination that advocated for and affirms same-sex marriage. It numbers about 5,000 congregations and 1 million adherents.) 
 
 Support for same-sex marriage continues to edge up among Christians each year, though white mainline Protestants and Catholics, most of whom are in favor, remain more than twice as likely to endorse the practice as white evangelicals, according to a Pew Research Center report. 
 
 [Her marriage was the jewel in her blog universe. Then she found out her husband was cheating.] 
 
 Although Melton regularly speaks at Christian events and churches, her new partner is less outspoken about her faith. Wambach grew up in a Catholic home but began dating girls in late high school, which put her at odds with the faith she was raised with. 
 
 She mentioned during an NPR interview in September that she had been revisiting her religious convictions. “I kind of turned my back away from the church and did steadily until kind of, not necessarily the church, but just like my faith until recently,” she said. 
 
 Melton described her relationship to Wambach: 
 
 “Abby is deeply sensitive and kind. The kids call her an M&M because she looks tough on the outside but inside she’s really mushy and sweet. Abby’s brave. Not just with her words but with her entire being. She has never been afraid to be herself, even when the world told her not to be. I learn from her everyday about the woman I want to become. She is committed to her friends and family. She has this sense of country and honor and chivalry that feels beautiful to me.” 
 
 Want more stories about faith? Follow Acts of Faith on Twitter or sign up for our newsletter. 
 
 Leonard Cohen, the bard of modern Judaism 
 
 Why Christians should not succumb to the apocalyptic language of the election 
 
 The deep disgust for Hillary Clinton that drives so many evangelicals to support Trump ||||| Images via Getty/Flatiron Books. 
 
 Glennon Doyle Melton, Christian blogger and author of bestselling books like the recent Oprah’s Book Club selection Love Warrior, “felt like the world could use all the love it can get” on Sunday night, so she decided to publicly announce a recent development in her romantic life. Three months after divorcing her husband Craig, Melton is dating soccer star Abby Wambach. 
 
 In a Facebook post free of labels like “gay,” “bisexual,” or “lesbian,” Melton calls Wambach “deeply sensitive” and “unwaveringly good,” and adds that her children feel pretty much the same way. “The kids call her an M&M,” she writes, “because she looks tough on the outside but inside she’s really mushy and sweet.” 
 
 Advertisement 
 
 After admitting that falling in love with Wambach, a champion soccer player with two Olympic Gold medals, happened more quickly than she could have ever expected, Melton answers some questions she presumes are on the minds of her readers (namely, “OMFG WHAT ABOUT YOUR POOR HUSBAND?!” and “OMFG WHAT ABOUT YOUR POOR KIDS?!”): 
 
 How is Craig? He’s his beautiful, kind, brave self. He’s dating too — and we are both supportive of each other’s relationships. After I told Craig, the first thing he said was: Holy shit. Is this what all the Indigo Girls has been about? I said, WHOA. I DON’T KNOW...MAYBE? How are the kids? I’ll let them speak for themselves, or not. I can tell you that as usual, we’re walking through this together. They have the love and support of their dad, me, their grandparents, their aunts and uncles, their church, their teachers, their friends’ families —all of whom have fallen as hard for Abby as they have. They’re lucky kids, to be surrounded by so much love. 
 
 She ends with one final all-caps proclamation, writing, “PRECIOUS WORLD: I LOVE ABBY.” And I’ll end with one, too. PRECIOUS WORLD, I BARELY KNOW WHO GLENNON DOYLE MELTON IS, BUT I’M GLAD SHE’S HAPPY. WHY NOT. GOOD FOR HER. ||||| SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) She is a life-long member of the LDS church with the needed ecclesiastical endorsement to hold a current temple recommend -- her faith's standard of being a believer in good standing. 
 
 Now she has taught her final class at BYU-Idaho in Rexburg, Idaho, after she declined to retract a Facebook statement (which can be read in its entirety at the bottom of this story) supporting the LGBT community. She was told by the school to retract her statement and when she refused, she lost her job. 
 
 Ruthie Robertson, an adjunct professor of political science -- one of the school's youngest -- taught that final class last week. She told 2News, she was allowed to finish out her summer course, but her contracted classes for fall and winter semesters have been cancelled. 
 
 She made the now viral Facebook post on June 5. She said within hours she was reported to BYU-Idaho administration and was called in to discuss the post. She called the post “private” and said she did not think it would hurt her career. 
 
 “I’m currently a member of the LDS Church. This organization has openly and forcefully opposed same-sex relationships and legalized same-sex marriage,” the post said in the post's opening. 
 
 She wrote about the LDS church fighting for California's Proposition 8, an amendment to the state's constitution, fighting to stop same sex marriage in the state and allowing religious universities, doctors and adoption services, among other services, being denied to same-sex couples. 
 
 Robertson, a member of the LDS church, said she has many gay friends and wrote the post to let them know she supported and loved them. She said she could not remove or rescind the post. 
 
 “I could not take it back,” she said. 
 
 Robertson said she felt secure in making her post on Facebook because it is private; no students followed her online and her beliefs have never been taught in a classroom. 
 
 Elder D. Todd Christofferson, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, one of the church's highest offices, told KUTV in 2015 that Mormons would not have their membership endangered by posting support of same-sex marriage on social media. 
 
 "There hasn't been any litmus test or standard imposed that you couldn't support that if you want to support it, if that's your belief and you think it's right," Christofferson said after a Jan. 27 news conference, reported by KUTV media partner The Salt Lake Tribune. 
 
 
 
 Christofferson was not asked and did not address what was appropriate for church employees. 
 
 She believes a former roommate who’d called her out for previous posts on feminism was likely the one who brought the LGBT post to BYUI’s attention. 
 
 
 
 “This is my official announcement and declaration that I believe heterosexuality and homosexuality are both natural and neither is sinful. I will never support the phrase 'love the sinner, hate the sin' because that “sin” is part of who that person is,” she wrote. 
 
 The June 5, Facebook post delves into LDS Church’s 2015 stance stating that children of gay couples could not be baptized until the age of 18. Robertson takes issue with this new guideline calling it “anti-family.” 
 
 “Most Christian faiths label homosexuality as a sin based on archaic writings A few hateful verses in the Old Testament have led to hundreds of years of prejudice, hatred, violence, and pain. If we’re going to follow the Old Testament, and use it to justify a hateful stance, there are several other things we need to start condemning and punishing.” 
 
 Robertson wrote in her post that such archaic teachings should be left in the past like others that include wearing clothing made of more than one fiber. Those Biblical laws that now seem outdated in her mind include -keeping menstruating women at home because they are unclean. 
 
 Robertson ended her LGBT Pride month post by saying “I will always and forever stand up for the equality of the LGBT community. Sexuality and gender are not binary, they are on a spectrum and that’s how we were made. Stand up for humanity, love people because of who they are... not despite who they are.” 
 
 She said she was never promised that she could keep her job if she retracted her post but says it was implied. She made an immediate attempt by writing the following: 
 
 In honor of LGBT Pride Month, I thought I would reveal some things in the name of authenticity. I'd like to preface this by saying that, as an employee of BYUI, my views do not reflect the school or LDS Church. These are my personal beliefs, and they have no place in my classroom nor will they ever. Students often approach me and ask my opinion on certain matters of the Church, and I always diplomatically discourage the discussion and tell them to seek their own truths rather than a professor. My students know that I expect respect and love for all, no matter their gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, etc. and that's the most I've said on the following subject. 
 
 Robertson wants to make it clear she is still a member of the LDS church and has no plans of leaving. She has since accepted students on her Facebook page who’ve reached out in support of her, but did not accept such requests until she was fired. 
 
 BYU-Idaho sent the following statement: 
 
 Brigham Young University-Idaho has a long-standing policy of not commenting on personnel matters. 
 
 While the University would not discuss the situation, there is evidence that Robertson was indeed contracted to teach into next year. As of Monday, BYU-Idaho still had Robertson slated in the online catalog of classes teaching POLSC170 International politics through 2018. 
 
 Robertson is a former student of BYU-Idaho and does not yet know where she will go next to teach. 
 
 Robertson said she was born and raised in Virginia as a member of the LDS church - officially known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Her mother was a convert. 
 
 She said she was home schooled until high school, and received her undergraduate degree from BYU-Idaho. She said it was during her time as a student there she started to realize she was “quite liberal.” While attending BYU, Robertson said she was a teaching aid for two years and started teaching POLSC170 for her internship. She was hired in December, 2016 to teach online at BYU-Idaho and started on campus in April, 2017. 
 
 Robertson has been an active member of the LDS church her entire life and is an “endowed” member who has been through the LDS temple. She has “always had an issue with religions policies on LGBT, but felt comfortable” with her own personal stance until the Nov. 15 policy on the baptisms for children with gay parents was leaked. Robertson said she has “been struggling ever since -- but still remains a member of the church, and holds a temple recommend.” 
 
 Robertson's Facebook post: 
 
 June 5th 
 
 In honor of LGBT Pride Month, I thought I would reveal some things in the name of authenticity. I’m currently a member of the LDS Church. This organization has openly and forcefully opposed same-sex relationships and legalized same-sex marriage. They pushed members in California to fight against Prop 8, and had a policy claiming that same-sex relationships were a sin and discouraged individuals from participating in them. In the past, the Church was a facilitator for adoptions. They ended this part of the organization to avoid having to deal with adoption requests from same-sex couples. In November 2015, they took their stance further by labeling same-sex couples in the Church as apostates, meaning those found in these relationships would have a disciplinary hearing to determine their membership status; they can either end their engagements in this sinful life, or be excommunicated. The policy also prevents their children from joining the Church until they are 18, with the condition that they disavow their parent’s life style. For an organization that places so much importance on the family unit, this policy sure seems to be attacking a form of that unit. Most Christian faiths label homosexuality as a sin based on archaic writings. A few hateful verses in the Old Testament have led to hundreds of years of prejudice, hatred, violence, and pain. If we’re going to follow the Old Testament, and use it to justify a hateful stance, there are several other things we need to start condemning and punishing. Leviticus 19:19 tells us we can’t wear clothing of two kinds of material… so, basically every clothing item ever has to be burned. The next time you see someone wearing clothes (which is always… so, you’re welcome for the opportunity to show your spiritual superiority), check the tag to see the materials it’s made from. If it’s more than one, tell them they should desire to walk around naked rather than wear clothing made of more than one material! Women, in Leviticus 15, we learn that God purposely made us unclean. When we menstruate, we are unclean for those 7 days. Oh, and anyone or anything that touches us during that time is unclean as well. You aren’t allowed to go to church at that time because you’ll corrupt everything there with your blood flow. Oh, and you know how God also gave us the ability to grow a human inside of us? Well, after a woman has a child, she has a period of impurity and cannot be touched. If it’s a boy, she’s unclean for 40 days. If it’s a girl, she’s unclean for 80 days. As a female, you also are not allowed to read from the scriptures (wait… how am I supposed to know about my impurity rituals then?! I need to know how to make myself pure after my period!..too bad). You also cannot preach in a church (can I use this excuse next time I’m asked to speak in church?) None of this is archaic, sexist, or totally illogical at all though, right? God commanded these things, so we need to make sure we make these into policies as well! What I’m trying convey is that we like to pick and choose from the scriptures, and if we choose to use the Old Testament as a defense for condemning homosexuality… there’s a whole lot more we need to be condemning as well. The Book of Mormon is supposed to be the keystone of the Church, right? It never once mentions homosexuality. What is does mention is that God disposed the practice of polygamy, and the Nephites are brought to repentance for practicing it…. yet, Joseph Smith said God commanded him to practice it. We can’t keep picking and choosing what kind of God we worship, and we can’t keep picking and choosing which commandments of his are to be enforced or not. This is my official announcement and declaration that I believe heterosexuality and homosexuality are both natural and neither is sinful. I will never support the phrase “love the sinner, hate the sin” because that “sin” is part of who that person is. Homosexuality and transgenderism are not sins; if God made us, and those are part of who we are then God created that as well. I realize that my views counter the current day policies of the LDS Church, but I hope that over time the Church will come to see the harm these policies have. Church History shows that the Church has rescinded policies before that weren't doctrinal, and that weren't inspired by the Lord. I hope that this will someday apply to the stance on the LGBT community. I will always and forever stand up for the equality of the LGBT community. Sexuality and gender are not binary, they are on a spectrum and that’s how we were made. Stand up for humanity, love people because of who they are... not despite who they are. Trump can break the tradition of June being LGBT pride month, but I'm still going to celebrate it.. this month and every month to follow. #LGBTPrideMonth
– "Happy," is how soccer star Abby Wambach put it on Instagram, tacking on an #iseethemoonnow." The photo was one posted a day earlier on Facebook by prominent Christian mommy blogger Glennon Doyle Melton, who wrote "Abby and I decided to hold hands forever. Love wins." The image shows two hands, each featuring a diamond ring. The engagement announcement came just three months after Melton went public with her relationship with the 36-year-old, which came about three months after she announced she was separating from husband Craig Melton in a lengthy post on her Momastery blog. Wambach's own marriage unraveled following an April DUI arrest. People describes Melton as a long-time same-sex marriage supporter, and cites this 2013 post: "Figuring out my stance on homosexuality felt like a life and death decision. I know my Jesus, I love Him, and I think if he needed me to believe that homosexuality was a sin, He would have mentioned it." Melton has three kids—son Chase and daughters Tish and Amma—and People quotes her speaking on her own same-sex relationship. "When Craig and I sat them down to tell them about Abby I started by saying: 'In our family, we live and tell the truth about who we are no matter what, and then love each other through it—and I'm about to show you how that’s done.'"