A very big week!

25 years ago today, Blaine and I were married. I know, we're having a hard time believing it, too! We were 19 and 20 years old and totally in love. We had no cold feet or second thoughts. We'd already been a couple for 5 years...Yes, really! Middle school sweethearts:) Through all those years, we never had a break-up or separation of any kind. Never even considered it.

Never would we have even imagined the direction our lives would take over our years of marriage! I'm so glad God doesn't show us what's to come...I would have completely freaked out. He's brought us through many things. Blessings beyond what we could have imagined. Hardships, too. Through it all, Christ has been our center and has led and guided us through all major life events. I can tell you neither of us foresaw being the parent to 5 children!! We hadn't even considered adoption 25 years ago...never entered our minds. We thought 2 would be perfect and we'd have them young so that we'd still be young when they left the nest...lots of us time!

Ha! God had other plans, didn't He?? (Insert HUGE smile here!) I absolutely cannot imagine at this point our lives any differently than they are. Blake has already left the nest and now this Sunday, Katie and De will be getting married. My baby girl. If things had been left to us and God had not intervened in His amazing way, we'd be empty nesters in 5 days. The thought frightens me, honestly. I'm just not ready for that.

God knew in all His wisdom that we needed more kids, even when we did not see that.

So this is a big week at our home.

Our 25th anniversary!

Daughter getting married!

M.J. lost his first tooth today!

So thankful that God knows more than we do:)

Blessings,

Laura

Beautiful shower

Look at this shower food! It tasted as pretty as it looks.

These are cake on a stick! Also as yummy as they looked. Later we had our choice of a gorgeous chocolate cake, dotted with fresh raspberries. Inside each raspberry, she put a little Godiva white chocolate pearl. The other choice was a fresh fruit tart. I chose a little of both! Good choice:)

Katie's aunts gave her a beautiful shower tonight. They had a great vision, did all the work and this was the result:) All I had to do was provide the backyard and make sure it was mowed. Absolutely stunning.

My sweet bride! Three weeks from tomorrow, Katie and De will be getting married in our backyard.

We had the most beautiful weather. Praying God provided a day exactly like today on June 26th!

As the evening wore on, all of the lit candles (some hanging in trees, some on the bridge that spans the little river in our pond...candles everywhere!) mirrored the stars in the sky.

There were a lot of special people there...cousins, aunts, great aunts, grandmas, wonderful friends, oh yeah...and the mother of the bride! We had the best night! Thanks Auntie's for all the thought, work and LOVE you put into showering Katie with blessings. How blessed we are.