One Year!

One year ago tomorrow (which is technically in 37 minutes), my sweetheart asked me to marry him! You all left such sweet comments, and we were overwhelmed with how many friends from all over the world rejoiced with us. (By the way, if you're curious how Nat and I met and got engaged, I have a book for you to read: "The Cliff-Hanger Series!")

As I look over the past year, I see tons of growth in our relationship. But if there is one thing I can pass on to other girls from my year of experience, I would say the best thing ever for our relationship has been ending each and every night in prayer together. That became a challenge at various times when we were on trips, but we always made it work somehow!

I can't imagine life without Nat. Truly we have become one and that's the way God intended it to be. He's my very best friend, a good husband and leader, and is always sensitive to the Lord and His Will. Nat can make me laugh at anything and sends my heart fluttering every single time he reaches for my hand.

♥Happy Anniversary, Sweetie!♥

Making Fall Memories.

While I don't remember this, my brother assured me that I definitely did go to pumpkin patches when I was younger. I'm taking his word over my memory, and chalking it up to "big brother experiences."

Nat and I went to a pumpkin "patch" nearby - more like 10 acres of pumpkins - but that's besides the point. We went with my brother, sister, and their families and had a blast! It was fun going on a hayride to the pumpkin fields and watching my niece's eyes light up with wonder:). Good times!

~Ann (sis-in-law), Phil (brother), Nat and me~

~Out in the fields trying to find the perfect pumpkin, according to my nephew Ethan~

~We even found our own pumpkin to take home:)~

What A Weekend!

I may be very biased, but I believe I am a part of the best church in the world! This past weekend was one to be tucked away into the memory box, to be pulled out time and time again in the future.

Friday night I got in on the tail end of the prep work for the appreciation banquet for my pastor, but I'm so glad I did! What a blessing to look around and see ladies I dearly love helping to pull this banquet together. Banquets are a lot of work because that means transforming our auditorium into a banquet hall. I think the results were absolutely beautiful:

While no one person can take the credit for this banquet, it helped to have a very organized lady in charge of the decorations:).

Loved the centerpieces!

Seeing all these pies brought back memories from my wedding three months ago... thankfully all the church ladies pitched in and brought a pie:).

Sunday was just an all-around terrific day. I started a new motivational program in my Sunday School class, the choir sang a song that I just couldn't get out of my head all week ("Hallelujah, 'Tis Done!"), Pastor Roland preached a thought-provoking message on the last statement Jesus made on the cross - "It Is Finished" - and of course there was the "Light the World" sending service at night.

Pastor Roland started with Adam and Eve and how sin plunged the whole world into darkness. Of course our entire auditorium went dark at that point. Pastor then started walking through the patriarchs, the judges, prophets, etc. and lit a match for each one. But the match only burned for a little while before it went out. When Pastor Roland came to Jesus, he light a center candle and from there lit candles for the church at Jerusalem, the church at Antioch, and so on. It's so neat to be able to trace my church's history back to Welsh Christians who came and settled in the Philadelphia region.

Anyway, from there Pastor Roland went through all the missionaries my church supports, including the families sent from my church. Each teen from the youth group had a candle that represented a certain missionary and walked to different parts of the auditorium with their candle burning. I always get the shivers when I look around the room and see so many teens holding candles. But then comes the reminder that there is still much darkness that needs light shed upon it.

The final candle of the evening was lit by Pastor-now-missionary Doug Hammett and his wife. We as a church are so excited for them as the follow the Lord's leading!

Good-byes must always be said though, and my church family did that very thing! I must say one of the many good things about sitting so close to the front is I got to get up there and say my good-byes right away:).

They head out Tuesday for the mission field of Botswana!!!

Up...

.... and I'm not quite sure why! Hmm, must've been that cheese dip we had for a snack after church tonight.

Since I'm not in the land of sleep being oh-so-productive, and since I just heard the cuckoo clock from my neighbor's house downstairs strike one, I figure some late-night musings and ramblings are well in order! I'm actually procrastinating on a project that needs to get done, but that's what tomorrow is for, right? Umm, right.

In random news, Sunday evening our blissful sleep was interrupted with a 12:51 AM phone call. I must say I was almost patting myself on the back for being strangely alert through my sleepiness when I saw the name on the caller id: *very pregnant friend*. One quick return phone call to her and hubby and I were out the door to pick up her two-year-old son and bring him home with us. One very quick hour later, she welcomed her daughter into the world. Yeah, that's the kind of delivery I want to have: quick and well, not-so-painless, but at least quick!

Since the baby was three weeks early, that meant things were nowhere near as ready as my friend hoped to be in making the transition smooth for her son to come to our house. So we dutifully grabbed a pack-n-play, which turned out to be quite worthless that first night:). Little two-year-old boy was a bit disoriented and strangely enough (ha!) did not take too well to being in a newish place. We were bordering on sleep deprivation and chose to take the sanity route by bringing him to bed with us. Who knew that a two-year-old boy could actually take up the entire queen size bed, leaving us to cling to the edges? I finally got smart in the wee morning hours and moved said little guy to the one side of the bed where he had exactly 6 inches to sprawl:o).

Our plan for night #2 was to wear him out before bed, which my husband did quite well. We thought we had the system beat... until we put him in the pack-n-play and began our prayer time. Let's just say prayer time was sprinkled with lots of "Mommmmmmmmmmy!! Dadddddddy!!!!" With the hope of him crying himself to sleep fading away, I went to the pack-n-play and made sure little guy knew Mommy and Daddy would be seen.... tomorrow. The sniffles and tears subsided and 9.5 hours were passed in peaceful slumber, much to our relief and in answer to prayer!

Although definitely not planned for this week, I'm glad that baby girl is born and little guy has been babysat. I'd rather have everything be completely busy in one week (case in point: this week!) and leave next week wide, wide open:).

Later today Nat and I are going to Philadelphia and Sight and Sound, making for a very full Thursday. In a twist I still don't understand, we're following the school bus from our Christian school to a museum in Philadelphia. Apparently there is no parking available for buses at this museum (what a concept), so Nat is going to drive the bus from the museum to some parking lot half-way across town. Strange. Since we planned weeks ago to go to Sight and Sound, the school principal suggested the idea of bringing our own car so we can take off for Lancaster County once Nat has returned the bus to the museum - where the principal will take back over in driving the bus back to school.

We actually spent the day in Philadelphia two months ago and did the touristy thing, so I'm not exactly sure what we're going to do for the four hours we have to kill while waiting for the students to go through the museum. I'm sure it'll involve food and chocolate though:o).

I get to work Friday and Saturday and in the midst of all of that, I'm helping with preparing for a banquet for Rachel and her family. They head out next week for Botswana, so my church is doing an appreciation banquet on Saturday night, which means prep work on Friday night:o). Sunday will be a busy (and emotional!) day as we hold a sending service called, "Light the World." This type of church service is only held when we send a missionary family to the mission field, but they have been some of the most impacting church services I have ever been in.

Missions has always been the heartbeat of my church, and right now we have missionaries coming and going. One missionary family to Chile has been home for a month and they leave tomorrow to go back to Chile. Of course Rachel's family goes to Botswana next week, just as another missionary family -- the Wilhites -- return from 8 months of furlough travel around the USA. Then they will return to South Africa sometime in November. Another missionary family to Chile is planning to return to the States on furlough sometime within the next 3-4 months. I feel so blessed to be a part of a church that is active in missions and sending families from our own church. Of course we greatly miss these families, but technology has greatly improved over the last ten years that it is so easy to stay in contact with our families... almost too easy sometimes. All these communication tools and methods at my fingertips and I still sometimes fail in keeping in touch with missionaries.

So I said all that to say it's going to be a busy weekend! For now though I think I better go try to get some sleep or I'm not going to be very productive through this busy weekend:o).