Protestant Discerning Catholicism

TLDR: I think Catholicism might be true, but I’m afraid of the relational consequences and don’t know how to take a first step without blowing up my life and marriage.

I am a 24 year old married man and first time father. I have grown up in a nondenominational, reformed Calvinist church, with my dad actually being the founder and lead pastor.

I have always been a Christian, but decided to take my faith seriously about 9 months ago, and read through the bible for the first time and am now at the tail end of that journey (only Revelation left!) Along the way I’ve developed a love for theology, and that’s led me to seriously consider Catholicism.

At first I just wanted to understand what Catholics actually believe, but I realized I had misunderstood or never learned most of it. The more I’ve looked into it (Scripture, Church Fathers, etc), the more compelling it’s become. At this point, I don’t think my main issue is doctrine anymore, which I'm frankly amazed to be saying, as I had every typical Protestant issue to work through.

My wife, my dad, and my whole family are strongly Protestant and pretty anti-Catholic. No one knows I’m even considering this. Even asking questions would likely cause a lot of tension and put me in a position where I feel like I have to defend myself or my salvation. At an early point of this journey I brought up Catholicism tentatively and my wife said "I will not be married to a Catholic". This was likely reactionary, but ouch. This is all to say, I feel that I have to be very convicted to bring up the drama that will ensue, and have struggled to feel like I'm ready yet. Even something as simple as attending a Mass feels like a barrier as I don't want to tell my wife or family yet, but also do not want to sneak around.

My mind is very messy about this situation so my question is this:

For those who have been in a similar situation, how did it go? How did you know when or how to take your first step? Did you run into any barriers with family?

I would love some good faith conversation, and hopefully to help me feel less alone in this new mental and spiritual journey that I never thought I would be at. I am welcome to debate and further conversation about this, but I really feel like I need support and advice as I have felt very lost and alone since the start of this.

EDIT: I want to add that if I were 100 percent, I would just bite the bullet and proceed. But despite my intellectual feelings on the matter, I feel psychologically like I cant be pushed over the edge yet.