The Evergreen State and God

As most of you know by now (because I've mentioned it no less than ten times) my first born baby girl, aka Daughter1, is getting married. We're still trying to pin down the when and the where, and as is our usual way of operating round here, it's complicated. Very.

Let's recap-

We live in New Jersey.
Daughter1 lives in the Washington D.C. area.
Fiance is currently living in Charleston SC.
Fiance's parents also live in South Carolina, but not in Charleston.
The happy couple plan to be married somewhere sometime in SC.

Those logistics are for amateurs, but guess what?
The fiance is moving soon, and when she becomes his Mrs. she'll be moving too.
Are you ready?

W is for Washington

Not Washington as in The District of Columbia, where the bride-to-be is currently working and living, but Washington as in The Evergreen State. The one that sits on the complete opposite side of the US of A, many, many, many miles from all of the above. Deep breaths now. Be brave.

And you know what? I feel brave. And happy. And so excited for the adventure my daughter and future son-in-law are about to embark upon, because here's the thing-

Beginning your life together as husband and wife in a home and city far from all that is familiar, means you must operate as a team from the get-go. An experience like this one can help cement a relationship, it allows you to mark it as wholly your own. Me and you. You and me. Husband and wife. I got you babe.  

I won't deny there is something sweet and special in being surrounded by the physical closeness and comfort of mom and dad and sister and cousins and all your big extended family. I also know there is something very liberating in figuring out what you look like as someone's other half, separate and away from the people who've loved you since the day you were born.

I cannot help but look back and see how God's hand has been upon each one of us, preparing us for this next season of life. How my sweet tender hearted girl, who never wanted her world to tilt in the slightest, had it flipped upside down at the age of fifteen.

September, 2003

How she was plucked from the cozy, familiar home she'd grown up in, and moved an ocean away, and how it was all so strange and new until one day it wasn't. Her fiance said to me recently, 'She's not afraid of anything.' and I smiled. That wasn't always so.

It was in that far away unfamiliar place my girl grew brave. It was there she learned to seize the day instead of allowing it to seize her. She discovered there's a big wide world out there just waiting to be known if you are not afraid to know it.

Above all, she learned that God is everywhere and also just a breath away. That home can be anywhere you are, even a country that is not your own.

Even the Evergreen State.

April, 2014

Her mama knows it too.