January through to March -
April
I got an iPhone and we finally met this utter legend. This
is Ed Strong. He is big, 60 and South African. He is the friendliest
person Chris and I have ever met, and his wife, Heidi, is a beautiful
woman (we met her more recently around October time). Our pastor and his
wife, Mike and Es, came over from SA around May time; Ed was Mike's
pastor back in SA and we are so blessed to have finally built a
relationship with him. He recently released a book, called "It Happened".
I haven't read it, but knowing Ed as I do, it was a shock for me to
discover some of the things he and Heidi, along with the other woman,
revealed. As Alan says in that link, Ed has redefined the word "strong"
for me. He loves God with all his heart, soul and mind; that is not to
be denied. But even he was not immune to sin. Having dealt with
infidelity in my own life, and seen it's work on loved ones, it was a
strange encouragement knowing that Ed and Heidi not only repaired their
relationship, but renewed it. I've seen how they speak to eachother now,
and whilst they are not perfect, they are definately getting there.
May Chris and I got baptised by two of our Elders, Joel and Drew (who sadly moved back to America with his family in August). I shared my testimony, infront of my family, and Chris's family. It was a daunting task, considering my testimony contains information that no-one save for God and Chris have been privy to, but having finally shared what God has done in my life so far, I hope other people can see what I see every day. A Father who loves his child despite her wrong-doing, and who forgives her and patiently teaches her every single day. An old friend said that she loved it so much she would do it every day if she could. I'm with her on that one. It is an overwhelming experience that passes by far too quickly.
We
also went away to Blaithewaite with our church. Blaithewaite is where I
got saved last year, so it was a slightly emotional reunion, especially
considering Chris wasn't there last year.We were there for a few days,
and honestly, most of it was spent inside revising while everyone else
enjoyed themselves, but we got to get out of the city and spend some
time in nature with God and glorious weather. I am pretty excited for
next year!May was a pretty hectic month, with the baptisms, the PsychoSoc ball, raising funds for the charity YoungMinds, and my second year exams. If you factor in wedding planning, May, as awesome as it was, is not a month I would like to relive. Stress is not me.
June
In June, we settled down to brass tacks and finalised all the wedding-y details. Whilst I adored doing it, I hated the time pressure. Weddings are not cheap with a family my size, and the drama around who would be invited to what nearly made me elope.
JulyIn July, Chris and I finally got married! I will share some photos eventually, but even 6 months on, I'm still in the "newly married" mode. Sometimes I'm overwhelmed by the fact he chose me. Sometimes I'm overwhelmed by how faithful God has been to both of us. I get asked often "how's married life?" and it's really hard to answer. What do I say? We argue. We disagree. We bicker. There have been days in the past six months where we've gone to bed angry with eachother. But married life is a wonderful mess; we're still treading on eachothers feet because we're like toddlers in our parents shoes. We'll grow into the roles, but for now, we're just shuffling along happily.
Chris's
utterly beautiful parents also treated us to a trip to Venice for our
honeymoon; I have never been to Italy before (I went to Sicily when I
was around 13 with my parents but it's not the same) so flying over
Venice and the lagoon was breathtaking. Our camera didn't have a memory
card in it (yay us!) and we couldn't find anywhere in Venice that sold
one, so hello iPhone photos! I'll post up more photos later, but for
now, I think this one sums up our trip nicely. In
July, we also went to a few friend's weddings. Honestly, July just
seems to be wedding month! Two friends (Chris's best man and his wife)
were married the week after we were, and two other friends two weeks
after that (so technically August, but who's counting?) I love going to
weddings; I love seeing how other people have done things.In August, we bid farewell to the Davis family. The Davis's have been an intergral part of our church since it's very birth; they did plant it after all, and they have continued to lead it faithfully, albeit imperfectly, since then. Drew's mom died of pancreatic cancer around February time (I think) and God called them back to America to be with their families. We mourned the loss of this engergetic, vivacious and slightly annoying family, but we were also rejoicing at their 'replacements' (I don't want to say replacements as no-one can replace Tam and Drew, but Mike and Es have now picked up where they left off).
We
also went to the circus; having a long standing fear of clowns (due to a
horrible clown at my 5th brithday party) I was really apprehensive, but
Chris wanted to go so we went. It was actually really fun; Chris was
pulled up onto the stage by the clown (who didn't look like a clown so
it wasn't scary) and we all have a fantastic time. I'm not sure if I
would take young children there, as a lot of the stuff wouldn't have
really made sense to them, but once our littles are toddler age, we can
think about it.September
A KRISPY KREME OPENED. This was the first KK to open up north of
Milton Keynes, so I was beyond excited about this. Since it opened,
we've had four more open up near us (Newcastle city centre, Durham,
Sunderland and Gateshead) so the novelty has kind of worn off, but
they're still delicious. I also went back to university, celebrated Chris's 24th and Chris and I settled into the 9-5 living.October
Uni started properly, with assignments and dissertations. I developed stronger relationships with the girls in our church, and Levi and Joshua (Joel and Mike's boys respectively) learned how to use iPhone cameras... I've gone through and deleted a fair few pictures of Levi's left eye, or his forehead, but there are some I have saved to embarras him with when he's older.November
With Novemeber came snow! We rarely get snow around these parts; rain, yes, snow, no. So it was definately a cause for celebration. The floods earlier this year caused a lot of damage and devastation, and when we saw the weather warnings for this winter, we were pretty apprehensive. However, thankfully we only seem to be getting light drizzle, although it is persistent.
December
Well it's still december now, but we have had our first Christmas together. Celebrating with two families was always going to be weird, but we spent Christmas morning at our house, and then made the journey to my parents to spend lunch with them. We then journed south to see Chris's parents, and visited his grandma and her family. We spent Boxing Day at his parents house, with his other grandma, and the level of presents... it's a norm for Chris, but for me, it's a lot harder to comprehend having that much money spent on me. Although according to him, "I'll just have to get used to it; they like it!" For New Years, we intend to visit some friends in the city, and then head out into the suburbs to spend midnight with family and friends.
Happy Christmas guys, I hope yours was as awesome as mine.
K.
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