Engagement Joy

Is there anything more delightful than celebrating and rejoicing with friends in the Lord's blessings in their lives? It is such a joyful thing to see the Lord work and to celebrate with those who are rejoicing! Two extremely dear friends in my life who have had such a huge huge influence in who I am today are both engaged! These women have walked some of the roughest times of my life with me, faithfully praying, extravagantly loving, and uniquely embracing me. Since 2008 I have been the recipient of extreme love
 and have seen in numerous ways the Lord's amazing blessing of their presence, friendship, and love in my life. Over the years since they graduated from high school & I moved to Georgia to teach for three years I have been so honored to keep in touch with these dear friends through text messages, visits, & phone calls. Each time that we are together or talk we can catch up right in the moment & it is like there has been absolutely no time that has passed (even though my heart misses them so much!). Each moment that I have with them I have been encouraged in my faith and have grown as a woman of God. 

We always have a wonderful time talking about treasured memories of the past and yet the Lord is good in allowing us to remember the past while celebrating the present & the future. As y'all might remember I had the AMAZING opportunity (due to the EXTREME generosity of MANY people) to spend a weekend "at home" to attend and be apart of a very special wedding of another dear friend of mine! I also had the opportunity to spend time with both of these ladies. One night we had the best time catching up over a late meal full of laughter and the opportunity to gather with dear friends.

My heart was full. 

I also had the incredible opportunity to have lovely chats with Carina as she patiently rearranged her schedule to spend time with me. I love you sunshine. Thank you for being such an amazing friend, a beautiful woman of God, and for being such a beautiful picture of God's love. Thank you so much for being such an amazing influence in my life! And I am reminded once again of how few pictures I have of you & I. (This must change. Because lets be serious- this one from the 2009 baseball game brings back a whole lot of fun memories, operation UK, operation 21, etc. but most of them seem slightly inappropriate (since they involved other boys) now that you are getting married. Hahaha!) 

In June Katharine & her family graciously housed me for the amazing wedding weekend & I am so incredibly grateful to them. They lovingly opened their home & treated me like I was a long lost daughter. I had forgotten the incredible amount of traffic DC has (okay, that's not exactly true- I actually tried to put it from my mind quickly when I moved *smiles*) & was so humbled that Katharine spent hours and hours in the car driving me around to my different commitments like it was her sole delight. Never once did she mention what an inconvenience somethings were for her but she sweetly made sure that I was constantly comfortable. Selfishly I enjoyed the time that we had to chat about love, life, and God, but I was so grateful for her kindness. Again, my heart was full from so much love. Beautiful, I love you & am so thankful for your love, laughter, your sweet reality, your incredible kindness, and your joy and creativity that you have brought to my life. Thank you so much for being such an amazing influence in my life!

And when Katharine dropped me off at the airport to say goodbye I cried freely (while holding my beautiful flowers from Katharine) because I was reminded of God's incredible blessings in my life. 

It has been months since those tearful goodbyes and in those months there has been so much joyful news that I once again found myself crying, but this time tears of joy when I heard from both of them about their engagements!  I am so excited for this new adventure and season that the Lord has for them. Both of these men are such blessed men and I praise the Lord for such lovely couples who love the Lord and who are such an encouragement to this single gal! I love y'all and my heart rejoices in this exciting news! I love you ladies!