We didn’t travel far, didn’t spend a lot of money, and ate most of our meals at restaurants equipped with a playscape (which Cbug kinda makes look like a cage in this picture).

 

RRL’s sister and her family were here for nearly a month this spring.  One weekend Grammy kept AB, CB and baby B so we could spend some time with this precious family.  We loaded up the kiddos, went camping, and enjoyed a “dinosaur” park.  We cooked dinner by the fire, enjoyed S’mores, and the “oldest” kids told us a bible story before bed.  We played hide-n-seek with the soccer ball and we laughed.  Mostly we just sat back and LOVED watching these six continue to form a bond that will span thousands of miles…just like the one their parents have.  So thankful for the time we got to spend together!

ABL

The incredible-six split up for Easter, some of  us heading to Nashville and some heading to Denton…but everyone heading to do something they love best, VISIT GRANDPARENTS!

But first, we couldn’t miss the school Easter egg hunt.  Another fun memory at our little preschool.

 
And then some of us “hunted” again in Nashville.

But eggs weren’t the only treasures we found while we were there.

One of my favorite treasures was lots of time together. 
Snuggles. 

Walks to the park.

 
And playing in some of my favorite childhood spots.

And, if that weren’t enough…
I also got to spend much of the weekend celebrating another beloved treasure. 
I’ve loved this beautiful bride for longer than I can remember.
The four of us have more memories together, covering a broader scope of life, than I do with just about anyone else I can think of.  Such a blessing to be able to add this day to that list of treasured-memories!

Indeed, I’d say our Easter “hunting” was VERY successful!
ABL

I’m still trying to go back and do a few more “rewind posts” to bridge the gaps this spring. Bare with me.

Another of our early adventures involved taking the “circus” to the museum.
Before we even got inside, there were sites to see.  Unfortunately. 
WE were the sites for others to see.
Sorry, people.  We’re still getting the hang of this corralling business.

Once we got inside.  There were lots of sites for US to SEE, as well.

First, sorry for creating any impression that “tomorrow” meant “first thing tomorrow morning”.  I didn’t intend to leave you hanging when I started the project last night.  I just got sleepy and the blog post got long, so I broke it up.

Ok, without further ado, back to my journal entry…

I called my mom and told her I said “no” (I was overcome as soon as I heard her voice and I think she thought RRL was dead or something because all I could get out at first was “RRL…he…RRL…and I… ) and RRL called my roommates, who were waiting with the Willises and other friends for us to come home with exciting news.

My mom was really encouraging.  She just listened as I sobbed and then she calmed me down.  She never told me I was wrong or making a bad decision.  She just told me to look at RRL.  To forget everything else and look at him.  When I did, the Lord filled me with an amazing love and a complete assurance about wanting to spend my life with him. (I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that I can still vividly remember that moment- I still clearly remember the visions of our future family that flooded me in that instant.)

We never made it to Nashville (because it was so late by this point) but lots of other good things came out of the way things happened. (But we did head to Dallas to celebrate with all of RRL’s family and my Momma flew in that weekend so I could celebrate with her, too).  For one, as I already mentioned, my roommates were all there when I said YES and it was amazing to get to share that moment with them.  Secondly, we got to have some time with Dr. and Mrs. Willis by ourselves.  They had gone home and gone to bed and I think we quite surprised them when we showed up on their doorsteps in the middle of the night, but they never let on.  If we had gone back to my house where everyone was waiting, we would have only seen them in the crowd.  Instead, though, we went to their house and had a very special time of prayer with them.  During this time of prayer, Dr Willis encouraged us to really think about the spiritual battle of the night, the implications of Satan’s attack and the Lord’s conquering powers.  He is incredibly wise, so gentle and loving in his encouragement.  The biggest blessing that came out of saying “no” is that I won’t ever wonder if saying “yes” was the right thing.  I have a confidence in our union and I feel the Lord’s presence in our relationship in a new way.

And that’s where the journal version ends.  I love that I documented what I thought to be the biggest blessing at that time…only one month after it happened.  I should have known that the blessings were really just beginning.  Our marriage has not been perfect, sometimes far from it.  RRL has always said that he believes the marriages of Ministers are attacked in a unique way because of their visibility to other vulnerable marriages.  I think he’s right.  We’ve seen it.  And this night didn’t free us from further attacks or struggles.  But I will say it did uniquely prepare us for our marriage.   If even for an hour, we faced what looking into the future as individuals would look like and we made a decision that the road ahead looked better (MUCH BETTER) knowing we would travel it together.  We prayed that we would be stronger in ministry together than we could be individually (thank you, J.Reese), and we’ve continued to hold that as the standard for the health of our marriage.  We also gained a glimpse into the ways Satan attacks and manipulates our emotions.  While he is NOT the victor (praise the Lord), he is also not a force to face naively.  This is why I find myself weeping in prayer for the Lord to save the marriages of those we love.  Its so much more than just praying that He won’t let them get divorced, that He won’t allow their families to be torn apart.  Its a prayer for the victory we believe in to come quickly and thoroughly. 

Ten years ago today, on the 2nd of March, 2001 (03-02-01) I said “Yes” and agreed to become Mrs RRL.  It was one of the top two most significant affirmative answers I’ve given in my lifetime.

But I didn’t say “Yes” until he asked a second time and that is the part of the story I’m anxious to tell.

I’ve never documented this story before.  Except in my personal journal.  Until very recently, RRL and I never shared the entire story together.  We’d each shared pieces of it with close friends and family, occasionally with teenagers who asked or jokingly referred to its events.  On the tenth anniversary of our engagement, though, it seems appropriate to add it to our family blog, our chronicle of what is molding and shaping our family.  I always use lots of words when telling stories…I can’t help myself (sorry).  And this story is no different, too many good details to leave anything out.  Apparently, I felt the same way 10 years ago, because I filled pages and pages sharing it.  I’m going to start by just typing straight from my college journal and then add some commentary, so I’m sure this will end up being more than one post.

4-21-01
It has been more than one month since we were engaged (3-2-01)!  Things are not perfect, as they will never be, but God is at work in our relationship.  (We had already navigated some difficult days in our relationship.  We’d broken up for more than 4 months and had been to counseling to help work through some of our differences in our family backgrounds.  Much of that is way too personal for the www, but if you ever want to know more, I’d be happy to share in person)  It sometimes scares me to not know where we are headed, but I’m so excited to go down this path with him.  The past month has been the first period of time since we started dating that I knew, from deep down inside of me, that he WAS INDEED the one God has been preparing as my husband.  What an amazing feeling.  It took saying “No” to RRL, though, to have that confidence.
THE STORY OF OUR ENGAGEMENT…
I’ll start from the beginning…On Wednesday, RRL asked me if we could have a special date on Friday night.  Although he has been taking me on “special dates” a lot recently to try to throw me off, (He was so tricky, determined that the nigh of our engagement would be a complete surprise.  On more than one occasion he had taken me on an amazing date, lead me to believe “this was it” and then calmly just taken me home.  What a punk.) this time just seemed different   He was almost nervous just to ask me out on the date and I had to hide my face for fear my grin would would let him know what I suspected.  I could hardly wait until Friday, and I tried to convince myself that I was reading too much into it because I did not want to be disappointed if it wasn’t really “THE night” I had been anxiously waiting for.  (I was so young- I read so many of my immaturities in the way I was “anticipating” him asking me to marry him.  But it really was such a FUN thing to wait for).

Friday afternoon I saw R’s cousin, K, and she was so excited, but couldn’t really tell me why.  Then she made some comment about how much RRL and I were going to be driving over the weekend.  That was the clincher.  I knew that she meant we were going to be driving to Nashville and the only reason we would drive to Nashville was if I was really ENGAGED (I’d had to do so many things “long-distance” with my family.  I had made it very clear that I was going to tell my Momma and Daddy in person that I was getting married)!!  Still, though, I tried to push the thought from my mind (unsuccessfully, I might add!)

Finally, 7:30 rolled around.  RRL picked me up wearing his nice suit and looking AMAZING (Amazing was double underlined in my journal- ha.).  He told me he was taking me to dinner, but wanted to blindfold me so that the destination would be a surprise.  When he took the blindfold off we were inside the cutest little guesthouse, a one room that included a living area, bedroom area, and a kitchen.  Everything was so nicely decorated with matching furniture and antques, so I KNEW that this was not any of our college friends’ houses (haha, our houses consisted of parents’ leftover furniture, and Club pictures as decorations), but he wouldn’t tell me where we were.  He had an amazing table laid with a lace cloth, candles, china, 6 gorgeous red roses that were just huge, sparkling grape juice and coconut shrimp from Red Lobster (my favorite!!) I do like Red Lobster, but you know we were in Abilene if I actually called it my favorite- the choices were slim apparently.

We ate, only neither of us really touched our food, we laughed nervously and smiled unendingly.  When we were leaving he took me outside to let me see where we were.  I was SO surprised and SO impressed.  He had arranged for us to eat in my favorite house in all of Abilene.  This is the cutest house on Cedar Crest, just a couple of blocks from school and every time I go past it I say “that is my favorite house in Abilene.”  (I loved it because it had these amazing trees in the front yard that framed it like a picture in a storybook, it reminded me of home).   Apparently one of his friends knew the people that lived there and asked if we could use their Bed and Breakfast, a back part of the house.  That was one of the most thoughtful things that anyone has ever done for me which made it all the more exciting.

Next we went out to “our spot” in the country where we would go dancing sometimes.  We danced there after our first Club Formal together and we had our first kiss there.  Anyway, he took me there to dance after dinner and he had a CD made of all our favorite songs to dance to (he really put so much thought into this night).  As we were dancing to “our song” from Hope Floats “Chances Are”, he got down on one knee and said a bunch of sweet things (which I don’t remember because I was so nervous), then he pulled out the ring box.

I had always told him that I didn’t care what the ring looked like because I know he doesn’t have much money.  I told him that even if he just tied a gold string around my finger, I would be thrilled.  When he opened the box, a piece of gold string was tucked inside in the shape of a ring.  He slipped it on my finger as he asked me to marry him and I realized that it was attached to something so I started pulling on the end of the string.  As I pulled, more and more of the string came out of his pocket until I had a whole wad of it (really, i used the word wad)!  At the end of the string was a beautiful solitaire ring. 

This is where things start going from extremely exciting to extremely weird…

More tomorrow.  With pictures.
ABL

Well, good for them  And its a good thing I kept my opinions to myself a few days ago when I really WANTED to tell my children that they missed their chance at snow LAST YEAR…it turns out, I KNOW NOTHING.  They got their second chance today.  Not quite the quantity of last year, but lots of white fluffy stuff, none-the-less.

KJ was glad to finally get to make those snowballs for throwing at his Daddy.  And tasted a bit of defeat, too, during said snowball fight.

alternatively titled “Why do I leave the house?”

We had a great morning with a college friend and her kids.  It is always amazing to catch up with old friends and hear about the ways the Lord is working in the lives of those we love.  I’m thankful for her encouragement and the way she openly shares about what she is learning and the ways that she is growing.  So excited about where the Lord is taking their family right now!

ANYWAY- we met at a JumpZone kind of in between our two houses so the kids could play.  Its a cool place with lots of fun inflatables and I liked that it was all in one room so there wasn’t much fear of kids wandering off somewhere (I thought).  I knew to keep a close eye on Cbug (I’ve referenced his amazing disappearing skills before) and Lou stayed pretty close so I always knew where she was, too.  I wasn’t worried about KJ at all.  He ran between obstacle courses, doesn’t really need help and wouldn’t wander off too far without telling me (again- so I thought).

About an hour into our fun, KJ came to find me (he had been checking in every so often) and this time he had white icing all over his face.  Right behind him came the owner of the establishment, bearing KJ’s party treat bag.  No, we were not there for a birthday party.  We were just there for open play.  But KJ found a way to join a party anyway.  VERY IMPRESSIVE as it required putting his shoes back on, following a little crowd to a party room away from the main room, and being “checked in” by the staff who had a list of names of kids that were invited to the party.  He apparently stayed at the party long enough to sing to the birthday boy with the other guests, eat his cake, drink his juice box, and collect his party bag before politely asking “Where is my mom?”  It wasn’t until then that anyone even realized that he wasn’t an invited guest. 

AHHHHH PARTY CRASHER! 

I was H-O-R-R-I-F-I-E-D and embarrassed, of course.  I mean, obviously if he had time to eat cake he had been out of my sight for awhile without me even noticing.  Awesome, ABL, awesome.  I couldn’t believe it.  I made him go back and apologize to the mom, return the party bag (which they insisted that we keep) and thank them for being such good hosts (even to the crashers).  He cried and cried he was so embarrassed and we had a long talk about not going anywhere with strangers- even if they have cake.  Maybe especially if they have cake. 

He said “they told me I just had to put my shoes on and I could go in”.  Fair enough, but from now on, please don’t go to ANY PARTIES without your Momma.  EVER.  And yes, that same rule will apply when you are a teenager, thankyouverymuch.

ABL