To Have and To Hold

Weddings are beautiful events. But what makes a wedding truly beautiful is the unstoppable love that simply emanates from the bride and groom. This past weekend, on Sunday, July 29th, I was blessed enough to be able to experience this feeling firsthand as my brother Ken married his gorgeous fiance Sarah. I don't think I've ever experienced something so beautiful.

I was honored to stand as a one of the bridesmaids at the wedding, and being part of the wedding party gave me an even deeper insight to the love that resided between the two. It started with the rehearsal dinner on Saturday night. My whole family was there and though it seemed at the rehearsal that all the loose ends wouldn't come together, we still had a blast. It was a night filled with laughter and anticipation of the next day to finally come. Since both Sarah's dad and the pastor were in wheelchairs and would be helping to marry Ken and Sarah, there were some adjustments we had to make to the way the ceremony was laid out, but they were worked out perfectly! It made for a beautiful and flawless ceremony the next day. I was even asked by my brother to serve communion to people during the service/ceremony! 

After the rehearsal we all went to Carol, the pastor's, house to have some BBQ and hang out. It was a fun time meeting some new people and just relaxing before the big day. Sarah and Ken even surprised all of the groomsmen with personalized pocket knives, and the bridesmaid and man of honor with robes with our initials embroidered on them! However, I think my favorite part was getting to see everyone work together to clean up after the party. No one really knew each other, and yet everyone worked together to wash and put away dishes, fold up tables and chairs, load up cars, etc. Seeing people serve one another selflessly as Jesus Christ served others was a truly beautiful sight :)

The bridesmaids, man of honor, and Sarah with our awesome robes! 

That night I was able to hang out with some of the bridesmaids and the man of honor at Sarah's house. We all slept over at her house to help each other get ready in the morning. However, Sarah astoundingly did her OWN hair... and it turned out BEAUTIFUL!! In fact we didn't have a single crisis the whole morning of getting ready (well, minus the fact that the man of honor happened to forget his tux on the bus he took to get into town and had to drive an hour away the morning of the wedding to pick it up from the bus yard!) We were all set and ready to go by 10:45am and headed to the church. Thank God that all of our hair and makeup turned out great, even though we did it all ourselves!

Sarah's hair that she did herself!

When we got to the church we did last minute preparations to get ready. But my favorite moment was seeing Sarah step into her wedding dress for the completed look. The sparkle in her eyes and the way her face glowed once she saw how beautiful she looked in the mirror was priceless. Here was a girl that God created in His own image, being prepared to hand over to Ken, a man also created in His own image; this was the day they were to be joined together to serve the Lord together even better as one. And you could read the excitement for that moment on every inch of her face.

Before we knew it, it was time to start walking down the aisle. I was nervous because I was the first bridesmaid to step down the aisle in front of a crowd of 370 people (yes, you heard me right!). However, it worked out well because once I took my place next to my other brothers standing up on Ken's side, I was able to watch the rest of the bridesmaids walk out and then finally watch as the bride stepped out with her parents. Though I couldn't see Ken's face that well from where I was standing, I could see Sarah's, and tears had already started building in her eyes. That's when I caught a glimpse of Ken's face: a look of the purest joy spread across his face, a joy I have never seen him express except for when he was baptized last summer and whenever he looks at Sarah. But this time was different, because he wasn't just looking at his girlfriend or fiance, he was looking at his bride :)

The rest of the ceremony was fantastic. Sarah's dad spoke beautiful words to both of them as he prepared to give his daughter over to Ken. I couldn't keep the tears from welling in my eyes the entire hour-long ceremony. It was just too pure and lovely. All anxieties that led up to this day were gone, and there was only Sarah and Ken and presence of the Holy Spirit, who had brought these two together when all of us least expected it. 

There were two receptions, one for the general population that attended the ceremony and the later one for close family and friends. The venue for the later reception was at a place called the Danada House, a beautiful white house that resides right on an equestrian center. The reception was a blast too, with incredible choices in music (well, at least in my opinion!) There were a lot of songs played by the Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Jack Johnson, and other similar artists. After the cake was cut and the bride and groom danced their first dance, one of my favorite moments of the night occurred: the father/daughter dance. Now, since Sarah's dad is in a wheelchair, they couldn't have your typical dance together. So what did they do? Coordinate a dance to "Eye of the Tiger!" It was hilarious and amazing! It couldn't have described either of their fun-loving personalities more perfectly. It just goes to show that when you find your hope in joy in God, you will always find pure joy in the things you can do.

Sarah really liked her bouquet :)

The beautiful new couple in front of the Danada House for the reception!

I enjoyed dancing that last couple hours with some close family friends, my mom, and brother, and even my gramma (who completely showed me up doing the Twist!). It was simply a blast. Everyone had fun and everyone's worries were far behind them. All in all, the entire day turned out perfectly!

Dancing the night away

I guess as my ending note to this whole story of the wedding would be this: I have had a rough summer, but this was a weekend of pure joy. Though I have been learning to be joyful always, as 1 Thessalonians 5:16 calls me to do, it's good to have days to just be able to celebrate. And Ken and Sarah's marriage was definitely something to celebrate. None of us thought Ken would ever get married, and over the years God has been working in amazing ways in his life. Meeting, dating, and now marrying Sarah is one of them. God blesses us in ways we could never imagine! To be able to celebrate one of the blessings with them was definitely one of the highlights of my summer, let alone the whole year. God is so good!

Me and my beautiful mother!

My mom and I with the man of the day!

Me and two other bridesmaids

Me and my brother Joey :)

I just love this :)

In Pursuit of the One of I Love

Hello everyone! I will admit that I have not kept up with this blog as I hoped to. However, I would like to keep track of things that have been truly on my heart this summer and that I feel the Lord has been teaching me. I want to use this blog to not only share how the Lord has been teaching me to laugh without fear of the future, but to encourage others who may be struggling down some of the same roads. So for this post, though it will be longer than usual, I would like to focus on my pursuit of Jesus Christ so far this summer.

Since I gave my life to the Lord almost two years ago, I have been growing by leaps and bounds in Christ. He keeps bringing me to new seasons of my life, and I have been learning something new in each of them. He has been edifying me on deeper and deeper levels. I also have grown deeper into an intimate relationship with Him. In order to explain, let me start by giving you the whole story of where the Lord brought my heart this summer...

At the beginning of this summer (in May), I struggled. I struggled a lot. I was extremely excited to be reunited with my family, since I live 6 hours away from them for most of the year while I'm at school. However, I have grown so incredibly close to my brothers and sisters in Christ at Baldwin Wallace University, that it broke my heart to have to leave them back in Ohio. So the first month back in Illinois was rough. On top of everything, my two best friends from home weren't around. One stayed in Michigan for the summer, and the other was studying abroad in Italy for six weeks. Though my heart rejoiced for them, I also felt selfishly pained by it, feeling very alone without any friends to spend my summer with.

But even though I had my doubts, the Lord pursued me and put it on my heart to start riding my bike more often. I would go on 16 mile rides or just a quick four mile ride to the park. At the park, I would not only experience in full the joy of God's beauty in nature, but I also started to dig into my Bible and sit quietly in prayer. These were the first days of my Christian walk that I truly tried to start spending quality quiet time with the Lord every single day. Though it felt forced at first, it gradually grew into a daily need. Reading the Word and praying in my heart to my Father in Heaven became my daily bread, the daily bread that God promises me to sustain me. For the first time in my life, I realized that my best friend always was and always will be Jesus Christ himself.

Reading my Bible in the beautiful Panfish Park!

Fast forward to the end of May: I found out that a friend I used to bowl with was in a coma. He's only 19 years old. I later found out his lungs and heart stopped functioning on their own due to a bad reaction to the anesthesia he was put on to get his tonsils taken out. I was in complete and utter shock. Then, only two days later, a day I was fasting for his full recovery, I found out my grandma had a stroke that paralyzed her right arm and leg. I seriously couldn't believe it. Could God really be putting me through all this, let alone all at the same time?

The next two weeks were insanity. I visited my grandma in the hospital 40 minutes away every day for a full week, and then started visiting less often so that I could help take care of the house while my mom continued her visits to the hospital, and later, the rehab center my grandma got moved to. Though I was stressed and confused about how all this could be happening to me, I continued to pray and draw near to the Lord. In fact, I don't think I had ever felt as close to the Lord as I did in those two weeks. It was the first time I realized that adversity is really a blessing in disguise. My walk with the Lord grew abundantly in those two weeks, and I finally was put in a situation where I could do nothing but trust in Him. And He provided.

My friend who was in the coma came out of the coma after only a few days and started recovering at rapid rates. He had actually suffered from four strokes, and was partially paralyzed on the right side as my grandma was. I was fortunate enough to be able to visit him at the hospital one day and get to catch up with his family and encourage him in his fight to recover. With that fighting spirit, he is miraculously almost completely back to his original state before the whole incident happened. I say miraculously because his recovery from barely making through the night, to being in a coma, to being almost completely back to normal is a miracle. As for my grandma, her older age has slowed down her recovery rate, though she has made some leaps and bounds in the past two months. She was finally able to go home after three or so weeks in rehab. She still needs as wheelchair, someone to stay with her at all times, and help walking with her cane, but I am grateful she can move. I worry about her progress from here on out because she struggles  accepting the new changes she has to make to her lifestyle, but I'm learning to trust God with those details too. I know I just have to lay them at His feet.