“every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows”   –   james 1:17

we are blessed.  every single day, ben and i become more and more convinced that God is not only sovereign over our lives and marriage, but that He is radically blessing us, by His grace and for His glory. 

here’s a little slice of our lives since the wedding (which i could still talk about for hours, btw)

the honeymoon (mini edition) was WONDERFUL!   (thank you so much to the Brokaw family for letting us stay in your cabin and making our getaway possible!)  we spent several days in beautiful franklin, north carolina exploring the great smokey mountains, adorable small towns, and eating the finest onion rings this side of texas. 

we returned from our mini-moon on thursday to celebrate the joyous wedding of my dear friend laura kerr (now cordle), continuing to hold our new lives together in this crazy “wedding-honeymoon-bliss” bubble.  laura’s wedding was beautiful – we’re so thankful the rain held off for her ceremony!  the drops didn’t begin to fall until the bride and groom were safely sent off in a cloud of shaving cream and rice.  and i was left to dance with my husband in the rain to lynard skynard. it was magical…. (yes, i am aware of the utterly painful level of cheesy-ness contained in that last statement, i don’t care.)

and now, tuesday finds us in boston visiting in-laws/parents for a week.  like vacation immediately following honeymoon.  yes please.

so we’re still trying to figure this married thing out, every morning we wake up and the surreal-ness of it all hits us anew. we commonly look at each other and one or both of us will comment “hey, we’re married now!”  or “wait, you’re my wife! yeah!”  i’m sure at some point marriage will lose its novelty, but part of me hopes it never will.

not to say its all been fun and easy….

moving and packing and three and a half hours of sleep make for grouchy spouses…on both parts.

but it’s not about us any way.  our lives together, the covenant which binds us, it’s about Christ and pointing all whom we come in contact with to the extravagant love He has for His church, a bride far more beautiful than laura or i or any bride could ever hope to be. 

and God continues to receive glory

and we are blessed enough to get to bask and twirl around like specks of dust in His sunbeam.

(like that image?  yeah oswald chambers…way to give me a mental picture)

on a slightly different note, i have concluded that life will continue to be one big, happy, chaotic vortex of change until we are settled in wisconsin in about three weeks.  boxes have been moved from ben’s house to mine. gifts have been opened and piled into cabinets and placed on shelves. and we are beginning to pack more boxes.

ben had a phone interview for a very promising job in milwaukee to support us financially provide for us while we work with transformation city – please pray that this job would be in God’s will for our lives!  it would certainly be exceedingly and abundantly more than we’d ever dared to ask for!

continue to pray for us as we prepare to move to milwaukee and as we figure out this surreal and happy beast called marriage. 

we are loved, in love and blessed beyond measure by His extravagant grace.

grace and peace,

m+b