Kristy's Wedding

Last week I did not have any doctor's appointments. That seems quite unique given the events of the last month. It was one of many blessings that week, as I finished pricing, purchasing, and preparing food for Kristy's wedding reception (she is one of my roommates). Some of the drinks had to be prepared beforehand; part of the punch required the use of a blender (can't tell you how much I've fallen in love with blenders lately! I LOVE making soups and smoothies in them!) and Abigail prepared the sweet tea beforehand because we have the supplies here, and she was a bridesmaid and would be busy the day of the wedding (she's a sweet tea expert as well as the one bridesmaid pictured below!).

As it turns out, seven houses on campus and two houses off campus were involved in the get-food-ready-for-Kristy's-wedding process, whether it be because they let me borrow their serving utensils, pitchers, punch bowls, and coolers, or because they let me store things in their refrigerators and freezers. In this way and many others, Kristy and Adam's wedding was an expression of community. So many came together to get so much done! On the day of the wedding, I wrote out instructions for what needed to happen in the kitchen during the hour before the reception started. I reminded me of how much I love curriculum mapping and lesson planning, figuring out how long things will take, what order to do them in, and how to explain them clearly. Ryan and several others stepped up to manage affairs there so that I could attend the wedding itself, which was a very small gathering, maybe 30 people on the beach at Sanibel, while the reception was more like 85. I was surprised and honored to be able to attend.

Though they have been dating for about two years, Kristy and Adam were engaged just a few months ago, shortly before leaving on a month-long project to Africa to plan for summer internships and encourage missionaries on the field there. Consequently, there was a lot to be done in the few weeks after they got back. Despite the recent deaths of two of our affiliates and several family members of affiliates here in the last few weeks, our community pulled together to make this a special day for the Griffiths. So many people helped in so many ways; it wasn't just happening in the kitchen with the food.

I love how God knew that this wedding would follow two funerals. I love how he brings great joy in the midst of great sorrow, how he knows exactly how much we can bear. How his timing is so perfect, how he has given us so many opportunities to rally together and love each other well over the last month and a half. We are a closer knit community because of it.

There were several personal milestones of freedom associated with Kristy's wedding and the shower and celebratory events preceding it. One was that I had a BLAST dancing at the reception! Absolutely LOVED it! I've never been one to favor dancing in public, often just barely swaying when people pull me out on the floor with them. I actually remember a friend's birthday party last summer during which I conceded to a little swaying and that was it. Afterwards I commented, "I think I'll really love dancing when I get a little free-er." I was right. I didn't think it would happen quite so soon. But this weekend I voluntarily entered the merriment on the dance floor and fully engaged and was alive and silly and joyful, and it was so freeing! And it wasn't just for one song, it was for the whole night! What a beautiful thing to feel that safe and comfortable around my friends here.

I can't help but think that this dancing experience would have made Kylee smile. She would have been so excited for me, known it was a really big deal for me. I love how she knew me so well... And she was a crazy, fun dancer. Oh how it would have been fun to dance with her that night! In a way, the dancing was evidence that God really is doing a major freeing work in me, that I'm not making it up, that it really will "stick," that I'll never be the same as I was before March 2010, and that will be a really, really good thing. I love how he reminds me of his faithfulness like that. He just keeps blessing me. The hard things of life just keep coming, but he just keeps blessing me. One day we won't be amazed that he's that good to us; we'll know it deep in the core of our souls----there will be no doubt, no unbelief. Just faith. Just wholeness. Kylee has that right now, and that's a beautiful thing!