Life so far

Why, hello! It's been a while.

In Greenville, a new city I've grown to love

A rare quiet moment

On the steps outside our rehearsal dinner

How to eat friend chicken, part one

On honeymoon in Punta Cana!

Flying home

I realize I don't blog when I'm super stressed, and most of 2013 was just that: super stress.  But some wonderful things have happened.  I moved my things into our new little home in mid-December and then promptly flew home.  I finally was home to plan my wedding and being there in person made it so much easier! And of course I got to see my family which was just lovely.  While Christmas did happen, the build up seemed mostly to the wedding, and it was wonderful to be surrounded by a community who loved me and my family.  The first Sunday I was back home, my arrival and wedding received a shout-out in church! I don't remember sleeping much. I remember being stressed until Fran arrived and going on really long runs in the morning with my dog.  The more people arrived to celebrate the wedding the more fun it suddenly became.  Here were people I loved and hardly ever get to see! And some had come from ever so far.

My wedding was a blur and we went on a lovely honeymoon to the Dominican Republic, which Fran kept a surprise until we were sat eating our wedding breakfast. When we returned, we packed up our gifts and headed back to England, and since we've been in Durham, we've been slowly recovering from jet lag, slowly unpacking, and slowly inventing storage space in our tiny house.  I'm enjoying being married so much more than I thought I would.  I hated being engaged.  I was constantly stressed and thought marriage would be just like that, but somehow worse because you just couldn't leave. But it's not. I've been surprised at how very natural it feels. And then there are mornings like today, when I dug my heels into the bed and refused to get up, and Fran comes along, shoves a coffee into my hand and drags me with him out the front door.  I'm surprised by the constant immediacy of grace.

Mereda shared with me a quote from G.K. Chesterton, and this is exactly how I've been feeling this week:

"It may be conceded to the mathematician that four is twice two. But two is not twice one; two is two thousand times one.”

With much more soon, and lots of photos.