Thursday, November 26, 2009

praise the lord. i am grateful.

today is thanksgiving - i have so much to be grateful for.

pete and i are headed out to my dads in a few hours. he just moved to this little lake-house in howell. last december, i trusted god for my dad's sobriety on my wedding day (and leading up to it!) thu
s far, god has been faithful and my dad has been sober for over a year. praise the lord. i am grateful.


last night, pete, elise and zak practiced the songs for our wedding. they are so talented. then, we had the opportunity to go taste some yummy appetizers at the whitney with my mom, allan and pete's friend, nick. they were so delicious. it was such a good time with great company. yesterday evening, i got to hang out with jennifer and caitlin. to be honest, i always fall asleep when we hang out (i can't help it, i'm a busy girl!) it was a little bittersweet knowing this may be our last girls night before i get married. they are such great friends. praise the lord. i am grateful.

tomorrow, i am headed to new york city with a couple of bags to begin moving into our apartment. jeff has done such an excellent job keeping-up the apartment and getting our life 'organized' in new york city. he is such an excellent provider. mr. and mrs. chin are taking us to go see 'memphis' on sunday. i have such generous in-laws. praise the lord. i am grateful.

only 14 days left until i am done with classes (forever!) i have me
t two of my best girlfriend, jen and heather, while at wayne state. the lord also provided me with a scholarship this past year, which has been a huge financial blessing. even though i fought long and hard to go to NYU for graduate school, god affirmed me that staying in michigan, at wayne state, was exactly where he wanted me. praise the lord, i am grateful.

within the past year, our family and friends have been so generous. my mom (and allan) are consistently asking me, 'what else do we need to make the wedding perfect?' the chin's and my dad have also financially blessed us to help make this the wedding jeff and i want. my aunts threw us a beautiful shower in august. jennifer has been my sanity throughout this planning process. ashley has generously been the 'designer and creator' of all the wedding stationary (invitations, programs, seating assignments.) my brothers have stepped up to help plan and be a part of the rehearsal dinner and be the ceremony musicians. praise the lord. i am grateful.

thank you to our friends and family who have loved on us and provided for us this past year.

much love.




Wednesday, November 11, 2009

i don't want it to be THAT kind of wedding...

i hate it when brides get so caught up in the meaningless details of their weddings. honestly, is that what a bride wants her wedding to be about? details? no one remembers them, guaranteed.

i'm beginning to be a little over-stressed and annoyed by all of these details that are creeping up on me. honestly, i don't care about them! the only reason jeff and i are having a 'real' wedding is because it may be the only time all of our best friends and family will be together - and it is a great opportunity to show them who Christ is and what He claims marriage as. i promise you that marriage is not about centerpieces, the music, the drinks, the food .... or even the people who are in attendance at the wedding. marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman that represents the covenant Christ made with the church.

please pray that i would not allow these details to blur my focus on how i view our wedding and marriage.

much love.

Monday, November 9, 2009

the sweet sound of...december 10

haha - i'm supposed to be studying, again. i'm not. no big surprise.

to be honest, hearing two of our professors talk about how there 'isn't much time left' in the semester gets me overly excited. 31 days, to be exact.

god has been so good to me throughout graduate school. we were supposed to have finals scheduled through december 22 (yes, two days after the wedding) but all of our professors scheduled the finals for the week of december 7. yes, ladies, it's true - i have 10 full days of FREE TIME before the wedding (i'm sure it will be quickly filled up by appointments and 'to-do's'....

just thought i would share a little snippet of joy :)

much love.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

6 weeks

i had a pretty busy weekend....looking forward at the next 6 weeks, i'm realizing that my days are quickly filling up with "to-dos" and lists of things i need (and want) to get done before the wedding... i'm really struggling today - i feel emotionally and spiritually drained...

on friday night i had the joy of spending the night at sarah's house with eda - her and dave had a date night...i realized why parents fall asleep early and why moms never seem to have enough sleep...although sweet little eda slept through the night (almost 12 hours!) she was sick with a cough - everytime she coughed throughout the night, i thought to myself, "oh no! i hope she doesn't choke, i should go check on her..." she was always ok, but it did make me appreciate why mothers are such light sleepers!

the next morning (saturday) i went out to my dads. he had an eye doctor appointment and the doctor insisted he had a driver. it was nice to see him, but being with him is....bittersweet. i love him and his company, but it's so hard leaving his house knowing he is alone. i want to be more available to him, but i am so busy. he took me to go see his new house. it's a little cottage-style house on a lake, down several curvy, dirt roads. although his new house is awesome, i feel like i have so many emotions associated with his current house. his current house is where his sober life began, it's where he and diane started their lives together, it's where he got married, it's where we always celebrated christmas...now, he's moving out, just as i move to nyc. maybe i'm uber-emotional and sensitive (okay, i admit it, i am) but his new house isn't home. with infrequent visits to michigan in the future, it will never be my home. satan has been whispering to my heart, "laura, his new house is so isolated, if he gets sick or falls, no one wil know...he is alone." i guess my exhaustion is due to several things: 1.) the constant worrying i do for my dad. when's the next time he will get sick? who will be there to get him help? 2.) this new home will never be my home...i'm getting married soon and will be 'cleaving' to jeff, in nyc.

i am having such a hard time entrusting my dad into god's care...i cannot be his sole 'worry-er' anymore. i cannot keep him from another relapse. i cannot be his caregiver. my primary concern is going to be my relationship with jeff, my husband. in order for me to fully love jeff, i need to lay this down.

on a more positive note, i went to my second dress fitting on saturday. my dress envy is officially gone :) once the dress fit, and didn't hang off of my body, i remembered why we bought it.

please pray for me. please pray that i would hand my dad over to the lord and that i would feel peace that surpasses all understanding.

much love.


Wednesday, November 4, 2009

question for bloggers

does anyone know how i set up 'alerts' when people comment on my posts? do i just have to keep checking them? or is there a way to receive emails telling me when someone has commented?

thanks.
much love.

ps: mom and allan are taking me to a japanese steak house tonight - yum! am i pregnant (imaculate conception?) my last 3 posts have included a lot of information on food! hahaha

my new favorite treat :)


jeff's mom bought me some Dark Chocolate Pomegranate by Brookside - they are SO good! they are like chocolate covered raisins, but MUCH better :) look for them at costco. mm mm mm.



much love.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

blahhh

so, i just got word that our wedding coordinator at The Whitney no longer works for them - AHH! how stressful! trusting that God will take care of this, too.


here are a couple of pics from the NYC chocolate show - unfortunately, the one picture we got together had a bad photographer (the top of our heads are cut off!) oh well :)








the show was fabulous. jeff rocks. what a stud.

i've given up facebook until after the wedding - it consumes my life. so, please catch me @ wiltonlaur@gmail.com :)

much love.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

chocolate is my love language

i'm sitting on the couch in the Chin family room with jeff, mr. chin and mrs. chin watching the yankees beat the phillys in the world series :) jeff and i have had a fabulous weekend. friday night, he picked me up from the airport and we headed straight to our new home (i love the sound of that!) i am so grateful for jeff's servant heart - he is so meticulous with the cleanliness, decoration and organization of the apartment. he frequently says, 'babe, i'm making a home for you.' i am one lucky gal. when i walked into our bedroom, i was greeted by the most beautiful lillys - my favorite flower. so thoughtful! don't worry - jeff and i headed back to long island to sleep. only 7 more weeks of sleeping alone!

saturday jeff had a surprise for me - we headed to the metropolitan pavilion for the INTERNATIONAL CHOCOLATE SHOW. yes, ladies - an entire day dedicated to tasting a variety of chocolate (and dessert wine) from chocolatiers. to be honest, i started to feel a little sick towards the end. too much goodness in one day :) BUT sure does know my primary love language: chocolate (i'll take any kind - milk, white, dark...) later that night, mr. and mrs. chin took us out to an uber-fancy, uber-delicious dinner to celebrate mrs. chin's 29th birthday (haha.) we are so grateful to our parents. they are so generous.

today, jeff and i went with his parents to Redeemer Presbyterian Church. Popular for their preacher, Tim Kellar, the service we attended was much more traditional than what i'm used to. maybe God will do huge things in my heart, but I still like New Life (jeff's home church, in queens) more. we'll see where we end up. jeff and i are going to really depend on our church as a place to serve and find some christ-loving folk. one major downside of leaving michigan is leaving our dearest friends. oh well, god has always been faithful.

tomorrow i head home - boo! i'm heading home to a final exam on tuesday (that i've yet to study for) and only 7 more weeks of singleness. also, only 7 more weeks of planning to do. i still need to do a lot: order the boxes for our dessert table, finish my dress fitting, get our parents gifts, organize seating, make our programs, design our centerpieces....this list is stressing me out!

much love.