One year ago...

One year ago today, Ethan wrote asking permission to start corresponding with me. How far we've come in one year!

One year ago today, I was excited at the possibility of getting to know Ethan and since I had already been praying about him for several months, I was fairly certain that things would 'work out'. And yet still, I had no certainty that it would work out, and that one short year later I would be married, living in another state and another country. Even more 'unbelievable', I had no idea when we started writing on that day, that one year later I would be anticipating our seven-month anniversary, which is next Monday! It just goes to show that sometimes, these things move very quickly. :) And even though it seems so quick when you look back over it all, in those days between our engagement and our wedding, it seemed to just drag by.

But in short, I can't even imagine it working out any differently than it did.

I'm anticipating these next couple months and all the little 'annivesaries' we'll be celebrating. One year from the first request to write, one year from the first email, one year from the first phone call and the proposal, one year from the first time seeing each other in person, one year from him putting a ring on my finger... I think we should celebrate each of these with special desserts, and that will make it quite a fun autumn!!!

:)

Summertime

Well, we just passed our six-month anniversary, which means that it's been 3 months since I've posted anything here. Isn't it funny how life has a tendency to just get so busy? So what have I been up to, other than avoiding my blog?

This summer has been a busy one, and we are currently just past the middle of a series of 'camp' weeks... first a fishing trip, then a week camping out at family camp, and next up a week of working at junior camp. In between all that, we celebrated our birthdays, I've been trying my hand at canning, Ethan's been playing softball, and we both enjoy just being outside as much as possible. 

Here's a few pictures...

{iced coffee : the theme of this summer}

{birthday surprise : Winnipeg getaway}

{zoo flamingo : reminded me a little bit of Firestorm with the blinking, staring eyes}

{birthday lunch}

{strawberry jam}

{early morning coffee in a canoe}

{yes, I fished : no, I didn't touch them unless I had to}

{our first camping/fishing trip}

{a good catch!} ;)

{sunset on Gull Lake}

{a little decorating project}

{nice to have a handyman around the house!}

{my softball watching buddy}

3 Months

Last Friday we celebrated our three-month anniversary!

I was so excited to have an old PA friend and her husband come by for the evening. They were on a little road trip to the Mall of America and decided to come the extra five (!) hours to spend the evening with us. It was so much fun to get caught up with them!

Here's a little peek into what we've been up to recently...

Of course, I can't give a pictorial update without including pictures of snow and frost. It really is quite beautiful! I think I'm getting ready for the snow to be done, though. Now that Easter is past, I'm ready to pull my flip-flops out again! It was a balmy 35 degrees yesterday (back in the 20s today), so I think it's coming... it's just slow!

I've been having fun with my sourdough starter (his name is Bob) and he is quite active and healthy. This has led to all sorts of recipe experimentation, although we stick mostly to sourdough waffles. (We eat a lot of waffles!) Another favorite is sourdough wheat thins - easy, although time-intensive, and so, so good!

Skillets have got to be one of the easiest week-night suppers. They are quick to throw together and you can use whatever you have on hand to make them up. Just start with a good spoonful of bacon grease and a couple cloves of garlic, and I can guarantee it will taste wonderful! :) This one had hot sausage, bratwurst, potatoes, corn, red pepper and onion.

My Grandma made this quilt for us, as she makes quilts for all the grandkids when they get married. Within the weeks after our wedding, Grandma had some health issues and we weren't sure how long we were going to have her with us. I'm so thankful that she's doing much better these days and getting more like her old self... even quilting again for a cousin who is pretty close to popping the question to his girlfriend. :) But every morning, when I make our bed, seeing Grandma's quilt reminds me to pray for her and Grandpa.

Perhaps my hair likes North Dakota? Curliness seems to be a more common trait these days, although still somewhat elusive. ;)

Ethan's Grandpa was in the hospital for a while after having triple bypass surgery. We would pass the gift shop every time we visited, and these cute little burlap signs and pillows were in the window. I will definitely be trying to make something similar soon... just have to gather a few more supplies!

Strawberries - my Springy, Easter splurge. :)

My newest little nephew has become quite my little buddy at church!

New table! Thanks to a generous gift, we got a brand-new-to-us table with a leaf and six chairs. Should last us at least through the first four kids. (Haha... it's a joke, people!)

Speaking of jokes, this would have been my dad... ha!

And us again, at a Symphony Concert Ethan played in on Saturday evening. It was such a GOOD concert... lots of classics leading into a Gershwin finale and a very entertaining pianist. And a very cute second trumpet player who winked at me and gave me a ride home. :)

I'm loving my life these days!

I love being married, and not just for the sake of marriage, but because it means I get to spend every day with Ethan.

I love having my own little place - my own little kitchen to cook up tasty things and my own little apartment to decorate and rearrange to my heart's content. The hardest thing to do thus far? Plan a menu in advance, make a grocery list, and stick to them both. :o) Budgeting 101, here I come!

I love being in North Dakota. I really mean it! North Dakota is so beautiful, and I don't think I would have been able to quite see its beauty if I had moved here before Botswana. But its flatness reminds me of Africa, and its trees remind me on Pennsylvania. Also, we are in the middle of winter. Snow nearly every week makes this winter-loving girl quite happy. I have a sweet husband who often cleans off my car, so maybe that makes the whole thing more tolerable for me. :o) But really, frost-etched trees outlined against a gray sky, large snowflakes gently falling, and then the sun comes out and it looks like millions of diamonds laying in the field. Gorgeous!

I love my new job. I've started working the church office here, which is good for several reasons. One, it gives me something to do and a way to be involved in my new church. Two, the timing was good as the other secretary has been having some health problems, so it helps her relax her schedule. Three, I love being a secretary. :o)

I love being busy in my new life. And busy we have been! We hit the ground running after returning from our honeymoon, and it almost surprised me that yesterday was our two-month anniversary. It doesn't seem possible that eight Sundays have passed since we've been married. But you know what they say, time flies when you're having fun! :o)

I waited way too long to make Turkish coffee, but now that I've 'remembered',
I'm sure I'll be making it a lot...

The Story of Us

Here's the long-awaited story. :o) I *intended* to post this in time for Valentine's Day, but that didn't happen... oops!

Sorry it's so long, but it could have been much longer! Though I don't wish to write out every single detail, I did want to give a fairly complete timeline of how things transpired between us. I think it's a pretty interesting story, but maybe I'm just a bit biased!

--------------------------

Sometime back, many years ago, two pastors' families lived in states that were very far apart. There were many similarities between the families: four children with only one daughter each, a great interest in the continent of Africa, many mutual friends and acquaintances, and most importantly, a shared love of God's Word. These families knew each other generally and at a couple times through the course of the years got to spend some time together. One of those families was mine, and the other was Ethan's. I don't remember much about him through the years, though I know there were at least three occasions when we were at the same conference, camp, or wedding.

When I moved to Africa in 2010, I wasn't worried about who I was going to marry. I knew that when the time was right, God would bring the right person to my attention. It wasn't past His power to make sure that I was in the right place at the right time. I was more interested in taking advantage of that opportunity to live in Africa! I was more scared of marrying the wrong person just because I wanted to be married, than the possibility of never marrying at all. In early 2011, one of the guys that came to Botswana for a missions module was from Ethan's church. When Nick got back to ND, Ethan heard all about me and how Ethan and I were perfect for each other, and that was initially what got Ethan's attention. Of course, he couldn't let on to Nick that he was actually interested, so he just blew it off and Nick soon dropped the subject. But the ball had started rolling, and Ethan began praying about the possibility and doing a bit of internet sleuthing.

As he talked to his parents about it and they all prayed through the summer of 2011, the Lord was also working in my life. In many ways, I felt like every day was precarious. My visa for Botswana was not yet approved, and for many months, I was living in the country almost from week to week, with the possibility of deportation hanging over my head. God taught me a lot about using my time wisely and just trusting Him for the way that things would work out. I was perfectly content with whatever the Lord had for me... I just really wanted to know what that was. How little did I realize this lesson would be repeated again and again in the coming months!

An inquiring email from Ethan's dad the end of August 2011 was a bit of a shock for me, since Ethan was not even on my radar, so to speak. Come to think of it, though it was Nick that originally told Ethan about me, I don't remember Nick ever talking to me about Ethan. I knew Ethan existed, but I didn't care anything about him. There was something to be said for his reputation, though, as I knew nothing bad about him and had always heard good things about him from mutual friends when they would speak of him. My interest was immediately piqued when we received that first email, and I agreed that I would be interested in getting to know him better. I knew enough about him to know that we shared common interests and passions in life, but I guess I never expected him to be interested in someone like me. :)

From that time, my parents and I began to pray about Ethan and about the possibility of a relationship starting. The dads planned to get together while we were back in the States in November of 2011, and they both enjoyed their conversation and decided that the next step would be for Ethan to spend time with my family. My dad wanted to be able to talk to him and see him for a period of time, rather than just talking to him on the phone, so Ethan began planning a trip to Africa.

The Lord worked so much in my life during those months, because in some ways from my perspective, it seemed like nothing was happening. All I could do was pray... I say "ALL" I could do. Looking back, that was the most crucial thing that I could do and the best way for the Lord to teach me all that He did. How easy it would have been (and I may or may not have started out this way) praying for the Lord to allow us to get married, but the Lord slowly changed my focus. What if the Lord had brought everything to this point just so that I could pray for Ethan? What if what was best for his life was not for us to be together, but for me to pray for him? He was making some decisions about his future and his ministry, and what if the Lord's will was simply for me to spend this time praying for him and then we would all walk away? It was a hard thing at first, but I'm so glad that I had that time to learn to pray for him, to pray for God's will in his life, whether that included me or not.

Now remember that up to this point, we had no communication with each other. He had a little bit of communication with my dad, but mostly, everything was hinging on his trip to Africa, which he planned for the last week of May 2012. I made plans to go away and stay with some friends while he was there, and wouldn't you know... it ended up being over my birthday! :)

While Ethan was in Botswana, I heard very little about 'how it was going.' I knew he arrived safely, and every once in a while my brother would text me a picture of some amazing food item that he and Ethan were making. On my birthday, they made bagels. Wasn't that nice of them? Ha! It wasn't until I got back home later on the day Ethan left that I heard my family's impressions on him. Suffice it to say that they all loved him and thought we would be perfect for each other. My dad wanted him to finalize a couple other things in his life before he and I began corresponding, so he was trying to downplay the whole thing, just in case it never worked out, but I could still tell that he was excited. ;o)

The beginning of July brought word that I was definitely leaving Botswana, and I began making plans about when I would be going back to the States. The end of July brought Ethan saying he was ready to begin communicating with me, and as you can imagine, my world was rather confusing for a bit. At least I knew that I wasn't going to be in Africa anymore, but beyond that, I had no idea where I was going to be living or what I was going to be doing. Once again, the Lord was teaching me valuable lessons about just following Him one step at a time and trusting that He had the details worked out.

We began corresponding on August 1st, and soon fell into a nice little rhythm of emailing back and forth every day. Ethan says that by this point, from what he felt the Lord was showing him and what he already knew about me from my blog and my family, he knew that he wanted to marry me. I was a little bit more skeptical. Well, not too skeptical. ;o) After all, I had been praying for him for eleven months and the Lord had given me nothing but peace about moving forward to each next step in the relationship. My family loved him, he passed all my dad's tests, and again, I knew nothing bad about him. However, I really didn't know him, so I had quite a list of questions for him that I wanted to see what he would say. It wasn't that my questions were hard or that there were even right or wrong answers to them. I was just interested in hearing what he would say, how he made decisions in his life, what his priorities were, and what sort of plans he had for his life. And I had a lot of questions. :)

Immediately, we both began realizing that we could practically write each other's emails. Each email there were repeated exclamations of "Me too!" and "I think the same exact thing". Of course, we are not exactly the same, but in our case, it was not opposites attracting!

The night before I was leaving Botswana, I had a conversation with my parents about Ethan. My dad asked me what I was thinking, and I told him that if Ethan asked, I would say yes. Now whether he would actually ask, or when he would ask... that was up to him. Until then, I was keeping a firm hold on my heart and doing my best to not get emotionally attached to him. Easier said than done, but once again, the Lord was teaching me so much through that time.

Ethan wrote my dad the first week of September and said that he knew he wanted to marry me. He didn't even need to see me in person before making the decision; he was ready to make it official. My dad let him wait on pins and needles for almost an entire week (in dad's defense, he was out of town for a couple days and then had internet problems, as well as the time difference challenge), but they were finally able to talk on Saturday, September 8th. Dad gave his full blessing and then gave Ethan my phone number, so that he could call and ask me for himself.

That was quite a nice phone call to receive, and we hardly stopped talking on the phone after that! We went from three and four page daily emails to two and three hour daily phone calls. I much preferred the phone calls to the emails, but I like actual in-person daily conversation better than just phone calls! ;o)

Ethan flew out to Pennsylvania to see me the next week on September 15th, and we announced our engagement to our churches the next day. It may seem a bit strange that we were really 'meeting' each other for the first time after we were already engaged. But by the time Ethan showed up in PA, I could say that he was my closest friend and probably knew more about me than any of my other friends! We had a sort of intellectual and spiritual bond that came through our very deep and personal emails - it was merely learning to build on that emotionally, which wasn't too hard to do once we got past the first awkward moments.

The first date - coffee included, of course!

I realize that everyone's story is a bit different and there really isn't a certain box that we can put all relationships into and say, "This is the way that it should be." What worked for Ethan and me would not work for everyone and should not be the way that everyone does it. But it worked for us, and looking back, we can both see the Lord's hand in bringing us together and can recount the blessings and the lessons that we learned during that time. For myself, it was so important to me that I have that time before we began communicating to pray about him and for him, and to learn those lessons about faith and trusting in God during that time. Though some of those days were very hard (and I have the anguished journal entries to prove it!), I wouldn't trade those days for anything. It was important for me to have a time of getting to know Ethan through our emails that wouldn't have happened if I had met him in person sooner than I had.

It's been such a fun journey to be on, and I've quite enjoyed falling in love with and committing my life to Ethan. Every day I am more amazed and more thankful at just how perfect he is for me. I couldn't have planned it better myself and I'm so glad I didn't have to do any of the planning at all! Thankfully, the Lord had it all under control. :o)

Can you believe it's really me?

I'm still alive.

I'm a little frozen, but still here. :)

Now that we are nearly four weeks from the wedding, I feel like I'm able to breathe a bit more. Everything leading up to the wedding - preparations for the day, getting ready to move, the holidays, family things - and then everything since the wedding - honeymoon, moving to ND, getting our little house set up - has meant that I've been quite a busy lady these past months.

I'm having lots of fun setting up my own little apartment, especially my own little kitchen. The weather hasn't been unbearable, but it has been rather cold. It's -10 out there today... it's days like today that my toes feel like they will never thaw out. But the SNOW! I've having so much fun watching the beautiful snow. :) I'm not sick of it yet... but you can ask me again in about a month or two.

Here's a couple wedding pictures from the talented Elizabeth Roy:

More pictures to come, I'm sure, as well as the complete story. I know I've been a slacking blogger of late, but I don't plan on being one forever. ;o)

Proverbs 31 for the Single Girl

This month was my last month writing for Grace & Honor. I had so much fun over the years sharing articles and things that the Lord was teaching me, and I'm going to miss working with the great authors and contributors that we had!

Here's this month's article:

She’s that illustrious goddess of domesticity. Her husband is crazy about her, the kids adore her, she is business-savvy, Martha Stewart, Paula Deen, Mother Theresa and Jackie Kennedy all rolled into one. The epitome of poise, her house beautifully decorated, her table laden with healthy and delicious foods, her family’s needs all met, and her entrepreneurial spirit bringing in a little extra cash. At least, that’s how we usually picture the Proverbs 31 woman.

I remember quite a few years ago as I was reading through Proverbs 31, and I was struck by verse 12, “She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.”

Continue Reading "Proverbs 31 for the Single Girl"....

{God is good all the time}

"The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it." 

Proverbs 10:22

I've been thinking quite a bit about this verse, and the applications that it might have. I certainly feel very rich these days in so many ways.

Looking back through the chapter of Proverbs 10, Solomon makes several observations about wealth. He tells us that righteousness is better than the treasures of wickedness (vs 2), that the hand of the diligent maketh rich (vs 4), that the tongue of the just is as choice silver (vs 20), and that the lips of the righteous feed many (vs 21). And then he makes this statement that it is the blessing of the Lord that maketh rich, and that He adds no sorrow to it.

I like what Matthew Henry had to say about this verse: "That wealth which is truly desirable, has no vexation of spirit in the enjoyment; no grief for the loss; no guilt by the abuse of it. What comes from the love of God, has the grace of God for its companion."

God has been so very good to me, in so many ways. In hard times when it's not easy to trace the hand of God, He is still good. In times like the last few weeks, when so many exciting and happy things are happening in my life, God is very good. He is good all the time. 

My life is full and blessed in these days of preparation - preparing details for the wedding, preparing to move across the country, preparing to be a wife. Everything is so much better than I ever even dreamed it would be - God's perfect timing and perfect will is certainly the best, and there is no sorrow with it.

In other (very related) news, my cheeks are almost constantly sore from smiling so much. :)

The Beauty of Worship

The air was a bit close in the room where they all sat, stuffed around a low table, relaxing as the meal came to a close. The candlelight flickered off the walls of the little abode, and the conversation has dropped to a low murmur. The door hesitatingly creaked open, and a small woman slipped in, carrying a vessel in her hands. Eyes followed her movement across the room, past the men, and to the head of the table. She was intruding in a man’s world, this small woman with her small box.

Continue reading "The Beauty of Worship Through Sacrifice"...

That article went up on Grace & Honor several days ago, but I'm just getting around to posting it here. You might say I've been a bit preoccupied lately. :)

Something Happened

So, this happened...

And now you know why the Lord was working in my life so much in the areas of faith and trust and just waiting for His perfect timing. In the midst of all the visa paperwork and uncertainty of days, I began corresponding with Ethan, but for a while didn't know if things would work out or not, so it just added to the confusion of those days.

I'm happy to say that things did work out. :) We are now planning a January wedding and I'll be moving to my new home in North Dakota. Bring on the snow!

God has been so very good in our lives. He has made it evident that this is His perfect will and we are so excited about spending the rest of our lives together. This past week has been spent in happiness in each other's company and it didn't take us long to start finishing each other's sentences. (That is to say, we are perfect for each other.) It was with great sadness that I said goodbye to him at the airport today. We're counting the days until his next trip and using up all our cell phone minutes in the mean time. :)

"The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad." Psalm 126:3