The Newblings

About this time last year, Brandon and I had our whole future planned out. We applied for a job teaching overseas with the Department of Defense (DOD) and were just sure that it was only a matter of time before our dream became a reality. We waited patiently for the much-anticipated phone call from the DOD informing us that we were needed in the Netherlands or Guam. Guess I must have zoned out while reading Proverbs 19:21, "Many are the plan's in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails."

Just like the next dreamer, I am great at making plans. Thinking "big picture". I'm a Meyer's Briggs ENFP, after all. Being content in the present? Still working on that. Needless to say, both Brandon and I were more than a little bit disappointed when we never did get that call from the DOD.

Fast-forward six months and I can honestly say I feel differently. I feel content with "staying put" for awhile here in our little Northwest corner of Washington.  This past month, I have been especially thankful that God's plans were different than ours.  We needed to be here this year for reasons that He knew and we couldn't have even seen coming.  The biggest reasons? Not one, but two siblings getting engaged.

Now, my brother Christian and his girlfriend Jaclyn have been dating for practically half of their lives, so I guess you could say that one was in the works. But my sister, Heidi, on the other hand--that was a suprise that no one could have predicted.  This time last year, no one had a clue who her fiancée Todd was.  Needless to say, we were all a bit gobsmacked when they started dating in June and suddenly, five months later, she was wearing a diamond on her ring finger and a husband-to-be on her right arm.  I guess every story is unique, though.  Good things arrive in different ways. It never ceases to amaze me that a dog can have puppies in just a few months, where it takes an elephant two full years to carry a baby before delivery.  Not that you can relate all things in life to mammal's gestation periods, but in this case Heidi and Todd are definitely dogs and Christian and Jaclyn are the elephants.

To keep up with their different pre-marital paces, Christian and Jaclyn plan to get married in September and Heidi and Todd, well, their wedding day is in less than two months.  The good news is that Brandon and I are here with them-- right smack dab in the middle of the wedding dress shopping and invitation making. Here to hug and support our siblings and our "newblings" (as I like to call the future inlaws), while they plan for the biggest milestones of their lives. Special moments that we couldn't have shared from Guam.

I am so thankful that the Lord's plans for our life this year were different (and better) than ours. And I am so thankful for Jaclyn and Todd...the newblings!

-A.W.