THE BIG DAY!!!

It is here...!

It's about 12:30 on Sunday, July 23, 2006. Andrea and I are to be married today at 3:30pm. Yesterday was a record breaking hot day in San Diego. It was 116 F at about 2pm yesterday in Escondido, the wedding is outside today so I am praying for some cooler weather, at the very least there is some cloud cover today ~ Praise God!

My two friends from Holland are here with me hanging out before we go to my parents to get ready for the ceremony. It has been a crazy week, but I am sure thankful that the day is finally here.

4 days and 17 hours

I'm sitting in my (our in 4 days) new house (its an apartment/guest house in Escondido) thinking about all that has happened over the last year and it really is astounding. Ok, so astounding may be more word than necessary, but it really is interesting to consider the all that has happened over the last year.

I returned from Germany on the 16th of June last year (2005) and had very little to re-start life back home with. I moved back in with my parents, which was a true blessing because I didn't really have the finances to do much else. By this time (18 July) last year my job at the church's coffee shop was my only source of income. At the time I remember not having any idea how things would change, but in the course of one year they certainly have.

God has truly blessed me in every way... I am getting married in 4 days, we have a place to live, which is now fully furnished with all our own stuff and I feel (oh my ~ it is so anti-Peter Pan of me to say it) grown up. We've got bills :( Phone, Internet, power, water, insurance, gas... It really is strange.

I remember a few years ago looking at my income and thinking, "How could I possibly afford to live on my own around here?" But tonight I was looking at my income alone (without Andrea's) next to all the essential expenses I currently have and I actually could do just fine on my own (I thank God I don't have to though!).

The way God works is amazing. A friend of mine once told me, "If I just wake up married someday I'll be happy." I guess in some ways I feel like I just woke up grown up.

Weird...

In a few days I'll wake up married :-)

Awesome...