Sorry these are a little out of order but here are a few of the wedding pictures from two weeks ago. The wedding was in our back yard and turned out to be an absolutely beautiful day! Thunderstorms were threatening but God held them back:)
Blaine and De built this pergola next to our pond for the ceremony. It turned out beautifully and we'll enjoy it for years to come. Behind the pond used to be all weeds but they worked together to make it look like a park. My sister in law strung crystals and hung them from the pergola...so pretty!
Katie and De went with the unity sand instead of the unity candle just in case they had a windy day.
How did I get these so out of order??? I LOVE this picture because not only are Katie and Blaine crying, Blake has lost it at this point. He was overwhelmed and seeing his dad and sister both crying...he couldn't hold it in:) Misganaw is unfazed and is looking for our ducks, it seems.
Thank you for the beautiful sunshine Lord!!
The wedding party...Mihiretu, Aliya, Trevor (De's brother), Kelly (friend), M.J., Katie, Maria, De, Kammi (friend), Blake, Heather (my niece) and Damien (De's nephew).
The wedding was all that it was dreamed to be. It was so personal and heart felt. It was small, just the way Katie wanted it...only 75 people.
After the wedding, we all went down to McCormick & Schmick's for a delicious dinner. We showed a sweet video that Katie's Aunt Jenny made for her which included De answering questions about why he loved Katie and how his life would be if she wasn't in it. He was so honest and it was a tear jerker. The best part is that he said, "You were the one who introduced me to Christ and my life will never be the same for that."
Then we had a surprise video to show. I had Maste and Sumer (friends from Ethiopia) secretly make up a video of their friends in Korah wishing them well and congratulating them on their wedding. Surprisingly, I was able to keep it quiet (a miracle in itself) so it was a complete surprise to Katie and De. A highlight was of Maste telling De that if he was in Ethiopia, he would have had to jump over a cow or several cows to earn a girl like Katie to marry! De loved that:)
Katie and De took a quick honeymoon at a downtown hotel because the only other place they wanted to go was Ethiopia. It seems that they have found someone to work for them while they are away so...a honeymoon in Ethiopia it is!
Our friends, Kevin and Denise have their tickets all booked (non-refundable to boot) as have Blaine and I for 14 days in October:) We are absolutely beyond excited to have the opportunity to take this trip with our friends and introduce them to the people who have captured our hearts.
Katie and De will be joining us and we can't wait to share this experience all together!
God has been so good to us. We are thankful for all that He's brought us through and for the fact that He's brought us out to the other side. We're thankful for a great son in law who loves the Lord and our daughter with all his heart.
God has brought many gifts out of the fire we had. This trip is just one more. We figured out that we had enough miles on our credit card to pay for our airline tickets to Ethiopia! Everything I had to re-purchase went on that credit card. I thought at least we could get some miles out of the deal. Never did I dream that we'd have enough to pay for this trip!
Good does come from bad:)
