Chapter 3: Cold hands...but NO cold feet!

 

Chapter 3:  Cold hands…but no Cold Feet! (Mandi’s perspective)

A Little Park right on the water is cute and all, unless it is about 50 degrees and windy, then, it’s just another place you don’t go! 

Well, there we were, parked with no one around, and Jeremy says, “Let’s go for a walk!”  All the while, knowing, that I hate being cold, and it’s the last thing I want to do on a relaxing Friday adventure! 

Walking so close we could have been Siamese twins, and shaking because of the chill factor, it wasn’t long before Jeremy turns me into himself, pops the ring out and says “Will you marryyy-yyy meee??”  

“Yesss!” I chattered back as I know that my lips were at that point, purple! (Go Pirates, Arghhh!) 

“We’re engaged” hit the text messages, phone calls, and Facebook real quick, and before long we found ourselves in the midst of planning a wedding. 

“A wedding!!?!? AHH!!”  That one season of life where you get real close to your family, as you prepare to break away, and as scripture tells us, originating in Genesis, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall become united and cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” 

 We are thankful to our family, who along this whole journey has supported us %100 percent in our ventures, jobs, decisions, and failures. 

They have lavished us with unconditional love just as our Heavenly Father does.  Our family to this day continues to be the ones we can trust, depend on, and always call for help.

Dad, I guess I STILL do that everyday, don’t I?!  Thank you for always teaching me by example how to do for others, sacrificing whatever it takes to “fix” whatever is broken. 

Moma, I do the same to you too, but my greatest joy comes from our conversations about the Lord we have now more than ever!  What a blessing and joy to be able to truly have this foundation in our lives. 

Bob and Tandy, thank you for letting me spend the rest of my life here on earth with your humble, God fearing, loving, compassionate, goofy son!

We are thankful for our friends, who walked through these days with us as an intimate support system, praying for us and giving wisdom as the first day to the rest of our lives drew near. 

Jenny, I am thankful for you, as my sister in Christ.  Over the years you have been that woman in my life who will ask me (and I to you) point blank, “How’s your heart?” and ready to discuss for hours sometimes truth; transparent, ugly, beautiful, truth. 

A woman who for 31 days before my wedding prayed through Proverbs 31 with me, as God help me understand it was only the Holy Spirit and his work within me that would teach me to be the godly submissive wife to Jeremy.  

May 2011 provided an opportunity for Jeremy and I to have our first experience together in the DR.  A trip of Jeremy coming to see and meet what I can call a second home, and second family to say the least.  These days were special, and as we prepared to go and serve together there it was over a time of prayer with His family, that the Lord humbled us together, to love and serve those in desperate poverty. 

In the midst of job changes from a semi-professional baseball team, which the Lord used to open doors into scouting, equipment, and connections for the boys in the DR, to involvement into the organization familiarly know as The Salvation Army, I begin to see in full effect, how God’s grace was really being poured out over our lives.  How His sovereign and perfect will heals, protects, guides, and sanctifies us along the way. 

Captains, thanks for hiring me to be apart of the Mission of God, and living into the call of Jesus on our lives, in true sacrifice through your lives. “And if you pour out that with which you sustain your own life for the hungry and satisfy the need of the afflicted…” Isaiah 58:10

September 2011 came and we found ourselves preparing for a New Family Store grand opening, and wedding on consecutive weekends.  A whirlwind to say the least, but surely one of the sweetest and most memorable time of our lives. 

Plans were set, pastor Marcos flown in, and the wedding party began their march down the aisle, towards the groom and preparing the way of the bride.  Vows were shared and we committed ourselves to our Savior, then to each other, a time of worship and adoration through communion, closing the celebration with a song that says it all to well, “So good, so soo good to me, Jesus!”

Game time at the reception included the wedding party dancing down together to Jock Jams! Jams, pump it up!!  Ohh how appropriate for the lineup at hand!  Ladies and gentleman, thank you all for sharing in this special day, the sacrifice made, and the joy it is to have you in our lives!  And to all who stayed to dance, bless you!

We dance, to the cupid shuffle, of course.  We sang, we laughed, hugged, cried, almost forgot to sign our marriage license, then, well, let the “married games” begin!(wink, wink)