CCF

Sometimes I feel like I'm just a CCF, a "Circumstantial Christ Follower"

I pray things like, "Lord, please teach me true humility, make me a genuinely humble person" ((but in the back of my mind I hope... "but also please do not let that come in the form of public humiliation, facial disfigurement... you know, anything horrible that might be a way You could teach genuine humility"))

and then I pray things like, "Lord, I want to serve you! Give me opportunities to serve you!!" ((but not in the form of 4:00am calls to pick up people from the hospital, or anything that will make me look really stupid, or anything that makes me uncomfortable, please))

and then I pray, "Lord, help me to love others with everything that I have, truly, from deep within, let me pour out a love on them that comes straight from Your heart" ((But not to "so and so", she is really hard to love... and not to that person because they hurt me a long time ago... well maybe I could fake it, yeah I'll just fake it.. isn't that good enough?))

and then I pray, "Lord, I want to be obedient! Help me to follow all of Your ways!" ((Except that one, and that one too, and that one isn't all that important is it?"

and then I pray, "Lord, I hand over the reins to you, I give you total control!" ((Except when I can handle it. You've got a lot on Your plate, I've toootally got this one!))



I don't know. I just coined the term CCF and I don't like it. I don't want to be a Circumstantial Christ Follower. I want to be like Christ no matter WHAT it takes. and I want it to be real.

Baptism!

So.. I finally did it yesterday, I got baptized! There really isn't any reason that I waited so long... I just couldn't ever bring myself to do it until yesterday. I was quite nervous, actually, but I am so glad that I finally went through with it. Impact had baptisms up at Wabasis Lake.. I think close to 16 or 17 people got baptized and it was truly amazing. God is still moving in people's hearts... in this community... in this world. It really renewed my passion for continually reaching out to people. He is so Good! oh and after- Braden, Stacy, Kyrie, and Brian came out to Josh's (our) house and we watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles together and ate pizza. It was pretty much the best day ever :-)

Wedding planning is also going very well :-) Last Thursday I went with Amanda, Emily, Kyrie, and Jenn to get bridesmaids dresses. It took about an hour for everyone to find the right dress that came in the right color, but it was a lot of fun! That means that everyone but my maid of honor has their dresses picked out and ordered. After, we went to the Macaroni Grill and had like a two hour dinner... which was also a lot of fun and then 3 of the 4 girls came over along with my junior bridesmaid Katie and we just hung out at my house til midnight or so, talking, cutting ribbon... oh and Emily did my first hair trial run and I'm feeling so good about having her do my hair! We still have a few other ideas to try and I'm really looking forward to that as well.

I asked Josh if he would like to handle the honeymoon and he said yes! He has been really helpful in the wedding planning and we've made all of the big decisions together. I don't want this to be "my wedding" I want it to be "our wedding!" Plus he loooves to travel and always finds the best deals on anything and everything, so I know I have nothing to worry about when it comes to our honeymoon :-)

WoW I love him!

Engagement pictures

Planning is well under way! and let me tell you, it's A LOT of fun!

I would like to start by saying something that I find very important. I am madly in love with the man I am going to marry! I am so excited about the dress, and the engagement pictures, and the invitations and yada yada yada... all of that. but what I am the MOST incredibly out of this world excited for is to marry the man of my dreams. If I have to wear a potato sack and get married in a dump... I could care less. The thing I am most excited about is committing my life to Joshua. and I mean that from the very bottom of my heart. (ok well maybe i'd be sort of upset if I was in a potato sack, but I think I've made my point!) :-)

Anyway, engagement pictures were today! We have been so incredibly blessed the last few months. What with the beautiful house that Josh bought for practically nothing, the thousands of dollars in appliances that were given to us, and the generosity we have seen from people for our wedding... we have so much to be thankful for!

One huge blessing was our photography for the wedding. We have a very very talented photographer who runs an extremely successful business called Modern Photographics in Lowell. He is high end, high quality, and high creativity. He is also a member at our church and has a generous, servants heart so he was able to work with us and our budget. Today we had our engagement session and he spent THREE HOURS with us taking what must have been close to 300 pictures... seriously. It was amazing. He and his wife have such great hearts and such a talent for photography. If anyone has any photographic needs in the Lowell area, please call his Modern Photographics.

Also, I've got the invitations all worked out! They are incredibly cute and exactly what I had in mind. Inexpensive too. I figure that wedding invitations are going to go straight into the trash... I mean really, do anyone but moms and grandmothers keep them? So I found exactly what I was looking for.

Oh and I asked all of my bridesmaids, finally, to be in my wedding and they all said yes! My little sister and I went dress shopping tonight and found the perfect dress for her. It also just so happens that Josh's sister bought a dress a week ago in the exact color I decided on tonight! How crazy is that!?

Anyway, that's all for now.... :-)

I bought a wedding dress!!

Ohhhh wow, I have a dress. It is perfect. No really, it's perfect. and it was the second dress that I tried on! SECOND! Is that highly unusual or odd at all? I'd like to think so, especially for me. I am a notoriously picky shopper but... it's perfect. I don't even have to have ANY alterations. With my curvy and sort of out of proportion figure (at times) that is shocking! and I got the veil, and the shoes, and the slip, and the bra is ordered (go figure they didn't have a perfectly fitting bra for me haha). It's hanging in my room just waiting to go in for a final fitting and to walk me down the aisle to marry the man of my dreams.

I always told Josh that if the Lord wants us to get married... he's got a ring, a dress, a location, etc etc all of that planned out, we just have to go find them. I really believe that is actually coming to pass :-) We went to Davids Bridal which does not have the greatest reputation. Pretty much everyone that I told I was going there gave me some kind of warning or caution about the place. But honestly, the girl who was helping me was extremely professional, cute, and she knew exactly what she was talking about. I could see other employees there doing little to nothing to help their brides but the person with me found exactly what I described to her in my mind. If you are getting married I would highly recommend that you go to Davids Bridal in Centerpointe mall and that you request Adrianna. She was wonderful!

It was a truly amazing experience and it is a truly amazing dress!

Wedding planning...

There is SO much to do to prepare for a wedding! I didn't realize it until now haha... it's been a lot of fun so far. We've got the date picked out (October 10), the ceremony site (Impact church), the reception location (Royal Heritage), contraceptives (haha birth control!) and the photographer (Modern Photographics). Josh is in Canada for the week so I'm just trying to get some plans done while he's away... but it's proving to be sort of difficult. The next big tasks to accomplish are invitations, dates for the other parties and showers, HONEYMOON LOCATION (!!) and most importantly and most difficult... my bridesmaids. Who knew that it could possibly be this hard to decide who should stand with me as I make the biggest commitment of my life. I'm trying to figure out what it really means, and what I want it to mean to the ladies that I choose.

I'm going dress shopping on Thursday and we're getting our engagement pictures on Tuesday, I can't wait! This is all so exciting! The most exciting thing about it is that I am marrying the man of my dreams. Seriously, everywhere I go and everyone I talk to only says how awesome Josh is.. what a good man he is... how he's going to make the BEST husband.. and I couldn't agree more. I could not be happier or more in love... ever.

I have been given so much!

"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're Engaged!!

On July 1, 2008 the love of my life asked me to marry him! Here's the story: (I'm not sparing any details because I want this to serve as a memory blog for me as well as share it with others.. so buckle up it's going to be a long one!)

There are several back stories you MUST know to get the full sweetness of the proposal...

Back Story Number 1: We went shopping in May and I bought an amazing pink dress! Seriously, it's perfect. Josh was with me and when I bought it he decided to take it and was going to randomly surprise me with it some night and take me out on a fabulous date... but then he finished that thought with.. "and who knows, maybe it'll be the dress you get proposed to in!"

Back Story Number 2: I'd say it must have been late March or April or so.. but he said... "Leslie, you should expect a ring by July 1" yay!


Back Story Number 3: I have a friend who is very, very dear to my heart. Her name is Betty Yeiter and she is 84 and I love her dearly. She has been following our relationship since the very beginning and is always checking my finger for a ring! haha anyway, when we went ring shopping we decided to tell her. We also decided to go to Fox Jewelers because she and her husband bought their diamonds from Mr. Fox himself and thought we should check them out. When we told her this Betty was just tickled and made a call in to "help us get a deal" because she has sent LOTS of business their way.


Now even though Josh said I should expect a ring by July 1 I didn't think it was actually going to happen. He closed on a house just last Thursday, June 26 and made it very clear that anything he had saved was going towards the house and the down payment. He also made many "genuine" comments of disappointment that an engagement wasn't going to happen any time soon. and with things like the soccer ball/piggy bank full of change (change that he said he had been saving for years for a ring some day) sitting in the open completely filled to the brim-still- I had no reason to think anything was going to happen any time soon. and THEN he texted me June 30 saying something like.. "hey... Jason and Heidi always do date nights... i think we should get into that habit to... lets go on a date this week to start... how about tuesday?" (The conversation never actually happened but I bought into the whole thing anyway!)

So Tuesday, July 1, finally arrives and I'm really excited because we're going on a date, a surprise date! and here's where the story starts to unfold.... At around 3:00 Josh stopped by my house and dropped off The Pink Dress! I was so excited! BUT I didn't even let my mind wander to "maybe you're getting engaged tonight!!" because I didn't want to ruin a great date with false hopes and be sad at the end when I should have been very happy the whole thing happened.. right? right.

So anyway, he drops the dress off... I get all dolled up and he picked me up at 6:15 looking mighty fine himself :-) We drove downtown and went to the Cygnus, a really REALLY nice restaurant at the top of the Amway Grand Plaza that I have always wanted to go to but never had before. We had a lovely (and expensive) dinner and then proceeded to head out to Grand Haven for some roller blading. He told me to bring extra clothes, so we got there.. changed.. bladed the boardwalk down to the pier and watched the sunset. It was amazing and there were a couple of times when I thought, "hmm is he going to propose?" but he didn't. He definitely didn't.

So we drove the hour back home and he got a couple of texts that he said were from his sister and his friend Rob, when they were actually from my mom- they were setting their plan in motion and I was completely oblivious. He even told me what Rob "said" in the text (something about a pump? haha!) and we proceeded home. He walked me to my door, kissed me goodnight, and I floated inside quoting the movie Elf, "I'm in love! I'm in love! and I don't care who knows it!" and talked to Brian and Kyra about our fabulous night.

Five minutes later.... my mom comes walking over. Now mind you it's like 11:45 at night, and she never ever comes over to my house... she said she just wanted to hear how my date was and talk to me for a minute... which kind of freaked me out... I figured someone had died or something and she needed to tell me about it.. anyway, that wasn't the case because after a few minutes of chatting she pulled out from behind her back a beautiful red rose and a note that said, "Daisy, meet me at our house. -Hero" (our knicknames for each other) and I just about freaked out! I was so excited! He said "our" house about HIS brand new house! I quick grabbed my camera, grabbed my purse and ran out the door.

It was the most exciting 10 minute drive of my life! The whole time I was thinking, "ohmygosh I could be getting engaged right now!" and I kept rubbing my ring finger thinking... "there might be a ring here soon, there might be a ring here soon!!" and then I finally just said out loud, "Lord, I am so nervous right now!!" and I immediately had this picture of Jesus sitting in the passenger seat, beaming, so excited to share the moment with me. It was amazing...

So I got to the house, walked in the door... and I found a trail of rose petals leading in to the spare room. There was a silver gift package about 8 inches long sitting on a table, with a note inside that had a key to the house taped to it. I thought it was great, but also kind of thought.. "oh.. is this it?" So I proceeded to go find Josh who was hiding in the house and noticed more rose petals leading to the master bedroom....

So I walked over towards the master bedroom where there was a beautiful poem taped to the door. I had to read it twice. The first time I just flew through and didn't comprehend annny of it. After getting somewhat of a grasp on what that said.. I opened the door and there were more rose petals, surrounding a lamp, with a ring on top. I can't describe the lamp well in words, but I did take the picture right here to always remember how beautiful it was! The two bottom platforms are filled with candles, and the top has a light shining down on a little... black... box... that said "Fox Jewelers" on the top....

He also had the song I told him last week that I want to walk down the aisle to playing in the background... I would tell you on here but I want it to be a surprise! Anyway, it was absolutely amazing and by far the most amazing moment of my life. He walked out from his hiding spot in the closet, told me to the open the box... when it was opened he took it from me, got down on one knee and said, "Leslie, will you marry me?" aaand what do you think my response was? YES!! YES!! YES!



After that I just about tackled him with kisses. Kept saying "you just proposed to me! you just proposed to me!" about a thousand times, seriously! and he made me the happiest woman alive at that exact moment :-) We drove back to my house and shared the excitement with my Mom, Greg, Brian, Kyra, and Brad. It was perfect! oh and they all knew it was going to happen that night, I was the only one in the dark.



Later I found out that he had put the soccer ball full of change in an obvious spot, so I would feel it, realize all of the change was still in there, and have no idea that he had already bought the ring. THREE WEEKS EARLIER! haha I was so completely clueless. He also had me carry the ring in when I was helping him move. Not the box itself, but it was in a bag that was in a bag and I carried it in! And it DID happen on July 1 like he said it would! And it WAS the night I wore the pink dress! He asked my permission from my Dad, my mom, Greg, and Brian. They all wholeheartedly said yes!

and probably one of the most beautiful details is that he took my sweet, 84 year old friend Betty to pick it out with him....

It was by far, the most amazing night of my life!