Bella's Dedication & Mother's Day

For Mother's Day this year, we went to Tyler with Randy's mom, Sonia, to celebrate Bella's Baby Dedication at church. We left early Saturday morning after Randy worked a 12 hour overnight shift at the ER. Needless to say, I drove and he slept. Saturday we went to the mall and hung out with Andrew, Kristi, & Bella. Bella is growing so much! She isn't crawling yet, but rolls over everywhere and scoots around on her belly. That girl has some thighs! They are so cute though, this is probably the only time in her life people will think chubby thighs are cute. Here are some pictures of our weekend:

Prayers for the Chapmans

Last night I sat down at the computer to check my blog reader before I went to bed. That is when I read about Steven Curtis Chapman's youngest daughter, Maria, who died yesterday in an accident at her home. You can read more about it and leave comments and condolences at www.stevencurtischapman.com.

Maria was the youngest of the 6 Chapman kids and youngest of their 3 adopted daughters. I can't imagine the grief and pain they are going through. I laid in bed last night praying for them, especially their son. He was driving the vehicle involved in the accident. I know God is in control of all of this. He has a plan and while he didn't cause the accident, he will hold this family together through it. It really made me stop and think that no one is immuned from bad things happening in their lives. And bad things happen to good people. Romans 8:28 says "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them." It doesn't say he caused the accident, but he will work it out for their good.

That concept is hard to explain to an unbelieving world. I think about all the tragedies that have happened recently - the cyclone in Mynamar, the earthquake in China, Ted Kennedy's diagnosis of a brain tumor, now Maria's death. Tragedies happen all the time - we live in a fallen world. But in every tragedy, an opportunity for God to move is present. We just have to be willing.

Please keep the Chapman family in your prayers in the coming days and weeks. You may not ever meet them face to face, but we will meet someday in heaven. That is a promise we can hold to.

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.'" Revelation 21:1-4

Our Wedding Day

As I was looking at and reading other friends' blogs, I realized I never documented our wedding day. Granted, I didn't start this blog until 2 months after our wedding day, so I guess I am excused. Since I have blogged about almost everything else, I decided to go back and "re-live" that day in our blog. Someday I'll probably be glad I did, considering my wedding book is only half finished (sorry Tiff!). So here goes:

April 6, 2007 - My last day at Fossil. This was an odd day for me - while I was excited to be getting married to Randy, I wasn't looking forward to starting all over at a new job. But God knew what was best for me and I got a job in Irving. The exciting part of this day was my bachelorette party/girl's nite out party was that evening. My best friend Tiffany had planned a great evening for me, all the bridesmaids, and my mom in downtown Dallas. We had so much fun, just hanging out - working on the favors for our reception, eating junk food, and staying up late.

April 14, 2007 - My 24th birthday. Guess what I spent my 24th birthday doing? Moving. I moved out of my apartment in Dallas to move in with Paul & Shannon Mints for 2 weeks until the wedding. All my furniture and stuff went to Randy's apartment - our home for our first 2 months. Who knew the two of us had so much stuff? :) But we did stop to celebrate at Don Pablo's...yum!

April 24, 2007 - My last day of work before the wedding.

April 25, 2007 - Randy & I headed to Marietta to take care of some last minute plans and start getting ready for the wedding. We got our marriage license, only to discover Paul wasn't registered to perform weddings in Oklahoma. Good thing to know before Saturday. So we started the process to get him registered. Thankfully we had a friend at the courthouse who was coming to the wedding and she said she would take care of everything when Paul arrived on Friday. Little blessings. We decorated for the reception on Thursday, it looked so pretty. Friday Randy's family arrived and we decorated the sanctuary while they got ready for the rehearsal dinner. My mom had worked so hard in the weeks before the wedding to plan out our reception. It was so pretty and exactly what we wanted. Thank you mom!

April 27, 2007 - Rehearsal time. Our rehearsal went rather smoothly. We had to have a few fill ins for grandmothers and such but overall it was a success. You know you hear all these horror stories about things falling apart right before the wedding and surprisingly I was calm. I think all the planning ahead of time worked out. That and I knew that even though things might go wrong, I still would be married in the end. And that was all that mattered. :) We finished the rehearsal and headed to the rehearsal dinner in the youth room, hosted by Randy's parents. Sonia and Kristy did such a great job decorating the youth room. It was a western, chuckwagon theme - complete with homemade cobbler!! They covered the tables with brown butcher paper, layed out pictures of Randy & I all over them, and then covered all of it with heavy, thick plastic. It looked amazing! We had such a good time visiting with friends and family and watching our Wedding Slideshow. Before the night was over, everyone signed a frame for us and wrote us "well-wishes" and prayers out on cards for our Wedding book. We will treasure these always.

April 28, 2007 - Wedding Day! It was finally here! I woke up early and had breakfast with Mom and Dad. Then Mom and I headed to the church to get ready and finish some last minute set-up for the reception. Julie B. did my nails, thanks sweetheart! Then it was time to start getting ready. The fun began. I had April, Amy, Ada, and Abby all with me in the dressing room (that is a lot of A's!). We had so much fun. We did hair, nails, took pictures and were goofy. I so enjoyed that time with them. Shannon told me before I left their house on Wednesday to enjoy every minute before the wedding because it would go by so fast - and it did! Pictures began and we were getting that much closer to 2 p.m.

2 p.m. - The wedding began. Daniel, April, Kristy and Andrew sang some beautiful songs at the beginning of the ceremony. Parents and grandparents walked in. Then came the groomsmen, Paul, and Randy. Then it was time for the bridesmaids. That's when I heard it - Bennett didn't want to walk down the aisle. He was so scared! Shannon got Brad to come back and Brad talked him through it and with Abby's comforting, it's going to be fun, he was ready! Then it was mine and Dad's turn. Wow, I had imagined this moment my whole life and it was finally here. The piano played, the doors opened and we entered. We made our way down the aisle, slowly, because I kept tripping over the front of my dress. The rest is pretty much a blur. I remember the look on Randy's face. He was so happy, giddy, like a little boy opening presents at Christmas. Thankfully Adam videod the entire ceremony and Terry recorded it, otherwise I might not have known what Paul said to us! We said our vows to each other, which we wrote ourselves. Randy actually finished his the night before, but they were wonderful. We said I do, were pronounced man and wife, and Randy kissed his bride.



The reception was full of our family and friends and we were so glad each of them got to share the day with us. The cakes were exuisite! There was none of Randy's left at the end! We did the bouquet and garter toss and then it was time to leave. I was sad, it had all gone so fast and I felt like I had hardly got to spend any time with the people who were celebrating with us. Little did we know, we couldn't leave. The groomsmen had "stolen" our car and were decorating it out back. Thank you guys! You saved us! So we did a "fake" leaving for the photographer and then headed back inside to visit some more. I know, we're hopeless. We just weren't ready to leave. We finally said our goodbyes and headed to Dallas where we spent our first night of our honeymoon in a charming B&B. Then it was off to Lake Tahoe for a week.

So there you go, our Wedding Day. Wonderful, fun, special, perfect! Just exactly what we wanted. Thank you for sharing this with us!