So I have lots to catch up on, like a major wedding for example! Yeah, nothing big or anything.

Lance and I were married October 12th, 2013 in Auburn, Washington at 4 in the afternoon. It was a glorious wedding!

What else should I say? It was glorious.

Lance and I are pretty laid back people so wanted our wedding to feel as calm and relaxed as we can be. We wanted people to sit at tables, we wanted there to be opportunities to chat with those at the tables; we wanted people to enjoy their time together with us. It was to be a party, a big fun ole party.

We incorporated little bits of our personalities and what was important to us. We love the outdoors, wood and things that are natural. Lance loves to work with wood, so we had lots of wood and nature in our décor. I love lots of bright colors, so we had bright fun colors everywhere we could add them. We both love games and breakfast, so we had games and breakfast food. We didn’t want to get bogged down in tradition but to simply have what was us in the wedding.

 

 

We also wanted to incorporate a few other things from Ukraine. In Ukraine, the parents give a blessing to their children before they are given away so we did our version of that. A parent’s blessing is a beautiful and powerful thing and we believe our families play an important role in our lives. This was a time to honor them and make room for them to speak into our lives; both Lance and I were blessed by our parents. Another tradition is to throw candy to your guests as you leave the church, so we did just that. Instead of everyone pelting us with rice, bubbles, or confetti, we bombarded everyone with candy. We thought it was fun.

 

We loved hearing each toast, we loved giving an understanding of missions to people, and we loved being blessed by friends and family.

 

I don’t know what everyone else thinks of their honeymoon but I’m quite sure Lance and I had the best one ever!  Seriously.

Our first few days were spent in Gig Harbor, very peaceful and quiet, we hardly saw anyone.

Our next 5 days were spent in Port Townsend at one of my neighbor’s cabins. It was right on the water in a quiet neighborhood. It was here that Lance and I discovered how much fun it is to cook together. We loved it. In Port Townsend, we saw a play called “The 6 Rules of Marriage.” How funny that such a play was there while we were in town! We met a great couple that had been married for 50 years, and they gave us their advice for long marriage. We also visited some sites in the area.

After Port Townsend we made our way around the peninsula. We spent a night in Neah Bay where the motel owner’s son was a missionary in Ukraine! Crazy connection! We continued around for a night at a bed and breakfast in Forks. Little did we know that this place was a hotspot for Twilight fans. They served a scrumptious breakfast of stuffed French toast, did I say it was yummy?

Then we drove down to Seabrook near Ocean Shores. Here we had our own little cabin with a kitchen near the beach. We played shuffleboard (I won), horseshoes (Lance dominated) and soaked in a hot tub near the woods. At one point some raccoons popped out from the porch and looked as though they wanted join us in the tub, but luckily the noticed Lance’s massive muscles and thought better of it.

After Seabrook we made a quick stop in Auburn to try and take care of some business i.e. opening gifts, starting to attack the mountain of thank you cards to write and starting to change my name.

Then it was off to Newport, Oregon where Lance’s family has a cabin right on the beach with a gorgeous view of a lighthouse. There was a wood fireplace and our room looked out over the ocean so could we fall asleep to the sound of the waves crashing. It really was bliss. In Newport, we had fun going around to the different beaches and exploring, visiting Ripley’s Believe It or Not, and filling up on fresh seafood. We loved every minute of it!

When our week in Newport was finished, we headed to Culver, Oregon for our stay with Lance’s family. Now we are planted here for the month of November catching up on people’s lives and sharing our own.

I know there have been rumors, questions asked, and eyebrows raised over the topic of a boy in my life. It is always the dreaded question for me, “So, ya got a boyfriend yet?” Such a tactless question.

So I am writing to tell you,  yes the rumors are true. There is a guy in my life, his name is Lance.

Lance works at the YWAM base in Kiev, Ukraine. He has been there for the last 5 years and has directed the DTS there. He is originally from central Oregon though. He is the middle child of three boys, no sisters- funny isn’t it? He has a great family who all love him.

Lance is a deep thinker. He loves to ponder the meaning of life and talk about heart issues. It does  not excite me to talk about the meaning of life. He is a huge visionary, can easily see the big picture. I focus more on the details, the little practical things in front of me. I am what people often call a dream killer. I’m too practical sometimes. Lance is not so organized, I organize to relax. He’s a feeler, I’m a judge. We are quite different, but have similarities as well.

We both love the outdoors, we love to hike, go to the beach. We both love to encourage and challenge people. We both enjoying discipling and empowering others. We both love our families and value time with them. We are both pretty easy going and simple, we just love to fellowship and be with people. I am so glad to have someone like Lance to challenge me and give me a new perspective.

We met at various YWAM events in the last year and kept in sporadic contact. The climax actually came at the YWAM Ukraine conference in Lutsk this past September. He simply asked if he could get to know me with the intention of courtship. I said yes, obviously. Thanksgiving weekend we made it “official.”

Since September, we have been chatting via phone calls. Unfortunately those phone calls have turned to skype calls since he went home for Christmas and will not return until mid February. Yes, our relationship will depend mostly on phone calls and skype (praise the Lord for skype!) for awhile.

So there ya go, I only wanted to lay out the info for you. You can come up with your own questions and comments later. Just know, he’s pretty much amazing.

And just to avoid the other dreaded question, “why haven’t you changed your profile status?” My answer to that: my life does not revolve around facebook.