Full circle, like the ring on my finger.

Tonight, while driving home from an awesome girls' weekend with my sisters- and mother-in-law in Chattanooga, Tenn., I saw the most amazing melon and orange sunset. I have a thing for sunsets on February 6ths.

Here's why: Our proposal story. Take a look :)

On the six-hour drive home I found a mix Aaron made for me for my 21st birthday. I was terribly homesick, living alone on Cape Cod, working strange hours and learning how to be away from everything I loved. I played that CD every day for two months, and as I listened to it tonight I smiled as I anticipated the notes of every next song. The Jayhawks' All the Right Reasons started playing, which was our first dance at our wedding reception, and a winsome feeling overtook me. I chose that song to be our first dance song because it made me cry every time I listened to it without Aaron when I was on Cape. Now we're married, living in a new place, creating a new chapter and solving the intricacies of our life together. 

I looked out at that sunset and gave thanks out loud. It was a full-circle moment.

It may be silly to celebrate all of these things, but I don't care. I never want a day to come when I look back and wish I had remembered and celebrated out loud the amazing blessings in my life. There is too much good in life, and such a short time to live it, that I think we all should celebrate with each other in our joys both big and small. 

I promise an update on the awesome weekend soon, but first I need to unpack, do some laundry, etc. And give my sweet husband a kiss when he gets home from set. It's Super Bowl Sunday, but I don't feel like going out and watching the game. Sometimes not having cable is nice... 

Our new babies

Meet Luz and Anderson!



Through one of my favorite blogs, Jesus Needs New PR, I found out that Matthew (the author) and Jessica, his wife, were going to be blogging in Dominican Republic on behalf of World Vision. I have been following their journey about their trip and learning about their partnership with Lisa Leonard, too, and I've been praying about where we should be giving our first fruits. Today we made a decision. Aaron and I agreed that the best way we can honor God with the gifts we've been given at this time is through sponsoring a child through World Vision, and I am happy to say that today we began a journey with Luz and Anderson. Luz and I will celebrate our birthdays together for as long as we sponsor her; something I'm excited to write and tell her about. Anderson is special to me because as I was talking to God, scrolling through the pictures, having a very difficult time deciding which child we were going to sponsor and not feeling like what we are financially able to do is enough, I saw "Anderson" pop up on the screen. "Anderson" is also my maiden name, and I felt peace rush over me. I know I can't sponsor every single child (boy, do I want to), but in this moment, I feel like God was telling me to be still. Nothing I can ever do will be enough. I can't boast about my own power; it is limited by geography, intelligence, money and so many other things. But I can boast about the power of Christ, and that boasting comes by way of a four year old named Luz and a five year old named Anderson. I pray that their little lives can be enriched because of the gifts entrusted to Aaron and I. So that's my happy news for today!

This is perfection.

{Fred Egan via Southern Weddings}

Please enjoy!

yes.

"Giulio and Maria have a beautiful apartment, the most impressive of which is, to my mind, the wall that Maria once covered with curses against Giulio (scrawled in thick black magic marker) because they were having an argument and "he yells louder than me" and she wanted to get a word in edgewise.

I think Maria is terrifically sexy, and this burst of passionate graffiti is only further evidence of it. Interestingly, though, Giulio sees the scrawled-upon wall as a sure-sign of Maria's repression, because she wrote her curses against him in Italian, and Italian is her second language, a language she has to think about for a moment before she can choose her words. He said if Maria had truly allowed herself to be overcome by anger–which she never does because she's a good Anglo-Protestant–then she would have written all over that wall in her native English. He says all Americans are like this: repressed. Which makes them dangerous and potentially deadly when they do blow up" (58).

-"Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert