Happy Tax Day!

If you've read any of the previous things I've posted, you'll know that life has been a bit difficult to plan since Wesley left in October.  I was blessed to be able to go out and visit him over Christmas, and he was able to come out to California for Easter a few weeks ago. We still don't know when he may be able to come back, and there's always the possibility that he could be sent somewhere else at almost any time.

With that in mind (as well as the fact that I plan on heading out to be where he is after the school year is over, regardless of if he comes back out here or not), when we had our last counseling session with our pastor we decided to have a legal ceremony to get officially married.  We were grateful that almost all of the wedding party and my parents were able to be there (and the maid of honor brought bubbles!). So .... we're now legally married, and have been since April 15 (Tax Day!! Woo!)!  We are waiting to have our honeymoon and really begin married life together until our friends and family can celebrate our marriage with us, whenever Wes is out here in the next few months.

We appreciate all of your support and encouragement, and are hopeful that we will all be able to celebrate together very soon.  In the meantime, we wanted to share our good news. ;)

Six Months Later

Sooooo it's been six months!! We planned on updating multiple times, but maintaining a blog is apparently rather difficult, especially when nothing very meaningful seems to happen. On my end, this whole experience has often seemed like just passing time until I can move out to Mississippi. I have continuously had to come back and ask God to help me focus on the time and place I am currently in, because I know that He hasn't forgotten about me during this "in between" period.

Most of my time has really been taken up with work, as well as the blessing of being able to spend time with my family, roommates, and friends.  I have tried to plan possible things for a wedding, but with no set date (due to military uncertainty) it is really hard to do! As a planner, that has been one of the hardest things for me. I have, practically without exception, had to pare away every thing that I thought I might want to have for a wedding. It has been like every little thing that I've wanted to hold on to (location, flowers, invitations, save the dates, food, etc) has been taken away from me. All I have is a pair of shiny shoes, a dress in the making (thanks Mackenzie! :)), a groom, and God. We have had to once again come back to the point of saying, "This wedding is yours, God. We want it to be what You want, and maybe what You want isn't what a typical wedding looks like."

The only things that I know for sure is that, God willing, Wesley will be able to come visit once before the summer. And that I (at some point) will be heading out to join him in Mississippi. How, and exactly when, I don't know. Sometimes I think about earlier times when I would pray that God would grow me to be more like Him, and I don't want to begrudge anything He needs to use to do so. It's really hard sometimes, but each day is one day closer to whatever is coming, and God already knows what that looks like. :)

An Unpredictable Year

For the last few years, God has really been working with me about leaving my plans with Him. I always like to plan things out and be in control as much as possible, but life doesn't ever seem to work out quite the way I have it planned. :) For example, the last few years God has provided me with a job that consistently keeps me flexible. Teaching is different and unpredictable every day.

Getting engaged to someone in the military is another unpredictable experience. We don't know a date or a place to have a wedding, since we don't know yet when Wesley may or may not be in the state, or even in the country, after this October. We may not know many specifics for a while. I think that ultimately, circumstances like this make me hold my plans with open hands so that God has the freedom to do with them what He will. They make me remember who is really in control and look forward to how He has planned everything out for us. This next year may be unpredictable, but I hope I can do my best to view it as an adventure that God has lovingly prepared for us and will guide us through.

The Proposal (Wesley's side)

   Knowing Kim,the way I had to propose needed to be simple but meaningful. 4 days before I proposed I was working on my message I was going to teach the Jr. high on that Sunday. After I was done looking at it for the day I wanted to look real quick and see what God had to say about marriage and love.(good place to start)

  The first thing I read was 1 Corinthians 13. It was a really good reminder on how we Christians need to show love. Then I was lead to one of the first things God said was not good. Genesis 2:18 , And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”After getting into the Bible a little bit more I ran into a good verse from 1 Peter 3:7:

"Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered."
  1 Peter 3:7

Next, several verses from Proverbs came up in my search:

"He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the LORD."- Proverbs 18:22

"A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies." Proverbs 31:10

and finally

"Houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent wife is from the Lord" Proverbs 19:14

  Because of the lack of time we have spent together this summer due to our busy schedules, we talked about going to places we like such as Golf and Stuff and going to Santa Monica Pier where we had gone before on dates. That Saturday Kim and I were going to hang out with a friend and go to the race track but she ended up having to do something else instead ( I did not ask her to cancel, I promise. It just worked out) so I looked at it as an opportunity to do something with Kim and possibly propose if it all worked out.(Fingers crossed). That morning we went to the gym like we normally do on Saturday mornings. Afterwards I suggested we go up to Santa Barbara. We had been there before but not by ourselves. After a quick post gym bite to eat we were on our way up there.

  I had a really good idea of what I wanted us to do up there and had a solid plan. Kim wanted to go to one of her favorite places in SB, Coffee Cat. So we went there so she could get her caffeine fix for the day. Afterward we went down to the harbor area where I always wanted to try those 2 person bikes, surreys as they're called. By the way, these bikes are not as cool as they looked. We rode up and down the beach for about an hour and a half and decided to go get some food. We went over to the harbor to a restaurant called Chucks. It was really good and we both ordered the salmon (one of our favorite meals to make). After we ate I wanted to spend time at the beach. There were about 2 1/2 hours of sunlight left and it was looking like everything was going great.

 I remember someone taking me and Kim to the one beach in Montecito; it's tucked into these really big houses and out of the way. So it would be a great time to be alone with Kim and potentially pop the question.

  When we got to the parking area there were only 3 cars there. The first problem I had was that the ring was in the glove box. Right in front of Kim. I went over to her side to get the Bible( even though I could have gotten it without going over) and the blanket. I was also trying to get it without her noticing me grabbing it. At that point she ran over real quick to "check out" the ocean by this stairwell near the parking spot........(Later I would find out that Kim, being the amazing and smart person she is, had a feeling what I was planning and gave me the opportunity to get the ring.)

  Note to the guys out there, girls are not clueless. They can figure out what us guys are going to do next before us guys figure it out.

   To get to this beach you have to walk down this path in between these huge mansions. The path was lined with really cool trees and flowers. After the quarter mile walk we reached the beach. There was a family there but no one else. I wanted to have a little more privacy for us so we walked down the beach some and found a sandy spot to put the blanket down. And we started going through the Bible about what I was teaching on Sunday.

  Something I should have looked at was when high tide was. Cause 5 minutes after we sat down, the tide was creeping up. And looking down the beach, we would end up getting pinned down in that spot until the tide went back out. So we walked back down the beach to the main part. At this beach there is  a cool cyprus log that washed up on shore and someone cut it into a nice bench; problem was that someone was enjoying a sandwich on this bench.

  So we found another spot on this tree that washed up. Again not 5 minutes after we sat down, a couple of waves splashed up over the rocks. Awesome right. We didn't get wet but this would be the second time we had to move. Looking over, this guy was still eating at the bench. I guess he was enjoying it. So now there was another group of people at the beach taking photos and not many good places to sit. Kim mentioned we could go to another beach. I was a little upset with myself but was in no way risking going to another beach not knowing what it was like.

  There was a little staircase there that I saw to go sit at. We started going back through Romans; luckily we were able to go through a good part of it. The whole time I would look to see if the guy on the bench was gone yet. This must have been a really good sandwich. After 15 mins on the stairs he finally left and we (I) hurried to get the bench before anyone else would get there. The sun was going down and it was starting to look like perfect timing.

  Another example on why girls are not stupid is, Kim kept noticing little paper in my Bible and kept asking me what they where. I kept replying that they were from another study. (We both go to the same studies so she knows). After we got done with going through Romans,we sat for a little bit and enjoyed the sunset. People would walk by here and there, but at this point I noticed that we were alone with no one in sight.

 At that time I was a little nervous, but felt that God was comforting me and relaxing me. I asked Kim if I could read her some verses that I was looking at and she said ok. After checking my pocket for the 50th time since we got there to see if the ring was there, I knew I was ready. I started out with reading 1 Corinthians 13 and then read Genesis 2:18 and finished up with everything I had prepared. Checking one more time to see if any one was around and the ring again, I reached out to Kim to stand up to give her a hug. At that point I got down on one knee and asked her if she would marry me? And like a gift from God she said yes. By far one of the most amazing feelings I have felt.

 We finished up our time at the beach in prayer, praying that God would bless our engagement and guide us.

  God truly has control of our lives and I see him working in us and can't wait to bring Kim as my bride to Mississippi to work together for God's kingdom.

The Proposal

Since Wesley will be leaving for Mississippi and his new battalion at the beginning of October, we had discussed getting engaged before he left.  However, our schedules this summer haven't been too cooperative!  The summer began with him visiting San Francisco with his uncle, then returning for a day before I left for a two week trip to Europe.  I came back just in time to see him leave for Young Life camp in Arizona. :)

Once we were both actually back in the same location, Wesley said we should take a day and go to Santa Barbara.  We went this last Saturday and spent the day doing some of my favorite things, including stopping at Coffee Cat, finding Waldo (a local business promotion that requires shoppers to find small cutouts of Waldo in 20 different stores), and riding in one of the two person surreys that can be rented along the beach.  We had dinner in one of the restaurants on the harbor, and then Wes suggested that we go to the beach to read the Bible together.

We had been to Hammonds Beach once before, and really enjoyed how remote and quiet it is.  So we walked on the public walkway to the beach, where we sat and discussed some of the things he'd be speaking about at the junior high ministry at our church the next morning.  After talking for a while, and once all of the other beach-goers had left, Wesley began reading me verses about marriage.  One of his favorites is Proverbs 19:14 -- "Houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent wife is from the Lord."  Then he asked if I would marry him, and I said yes.  We then spent some time in prayer, thanking God that he brought us together (which never would have happened, except for some strange, God-ordained circumstances in our lives that were necessary for us to even be in the same place and meet at all).  God has blessed us so much, and we know that he has much more planned for us as we face the next year of deployment and planning; we are happy to be able to share our story with you!  :)

Kim and I would like to welcome you to our blog.we will post updates about our year of engagement leading up to our wedding in the fall of 2014.We will post updates on how we are planning it,how God is working in our live as we will be separated due to military relocation and deployment in February.