we got married!

James 1:2 - Count it all joy...when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. In March, I was just finishing up making our fancy wedding invitations to send out to all of our family and friends when the world turned upside down. All of the anticipation, excitement, and control leading up to our wedding day turned into stress, fear, and doubt. That's how God's timing tends to work isn't it? Just when you think things are going your way, they take a turn. Our turn happened to feel like merging onto the interstate. However, with the help of family and friends, our wedding day turned out to be better than we could have ever imagined. The weather was absolutely perfect. BECAUSE of covid and so many cancelations, we were able to get our first-choice caterer (Kerry's Restaurant). Restrictions loosened just enough to allow us to have a dance. All of our close family and friends were in attendance. I could go on and on. So many things fell into place and the big day really was a BIG day. Thinking back, I can picture God saying, "You just wait.", as I was stressing/crying about the possibility of our wedding day getting canceled/moved. So, I will absolutely count the stress and pain that the global pandemic brought, as joy. Joy, in the fact that it brought us closer together and made us stronger. Joy in finding happiness in the little things no matter how small. And joy, in the fact that it gives Luke and I an excuse to celebrate our marriage not just once, but twice, with EVERYBODY this time. Hope to see you at our one-year!

On a nice summer day, Luke asked me out to eat at La Cocina in York, NE. He asked whether we should dress casual or dress nice, and we decided to dress nice. So, I put on my dress and went downstairs to get ready to leave and Thad was in the kitchen. He said, "Hey, are you leaving?" I said, "Yeah, Luke and I are going to eat." He said, "Oh, I was going to ask you to play basketball in the driveway." And I screamed, "WHAAAAATT?!" I immediately picked up the phone to call Luke to cancel our date because Thad NEVER wants to play basketball with me. Thad said I needed to go, so I told him that we would hurry back so we could play later. We had a lovely dinner, and we headed back to my house. I commented on the beautiful Nebraska sunset and Luke agreed. We arrived at my house and I was about to sprint inside to change to play basketball with Thad, but Luke suggested that we go sit in the gazebo behind my house for a while. As we were walking across the yard, I notice that the lights were on in the gazebo. I set my flowers down on the table, and when I turned around, Luke was on his knee, fishing for a small black box in his pocket. I was too excited to remember what he exactly said, but I do remember saying, "Yesss!" and giving Luke a big hug. We rushed inside to tell my parents. They were thrilled! Thad shook Luke's hand. Mollie and Kjell walked in and offered to re-create the special moment by taking our picture outside. We traveled to Uncle Toby's to tell Toby, Evette, Peyton, and Carson. Then we visited Logan and Brandi, grandparents Marvin and Beverly, and Ray and Sharon. Then we made our way out to Luke's house to tell Curt and Suzie, who were also thrilled. That night we also visited my Grandma Rathjen, who was ecstatic. She gave us both big hugs and wanted to tell everyone right away. We lost Grandma Rathjen in November, and even though we will miss her very much on our special day, her words "Live, Laugh, Love", assure us of her presence every day.

It all started way back in Kindergarten class with Mrs. Dowling. Miranda was in the afternoon Kindergarten section to start the year, and I was in the morning Kindergarten section. After a couple of weeks, I remember we merged the two Kindergarten sections and met the "others" from the afternoon section. This was when I first met Miranda. Growing up, Luke and I were good buddies. We occasionally played basketball or soccer together at recess (I would win every time, of course). Luke even invited me to a few of his birthday parties. I probably annoyed him most of the time when I would steal his hat or chase him and Bennett out at recess. Then in high school, I really started to realize how cute Miranda was. We started talking during the spring of our freshman year, and really hit it off at state track where Miranda ran the 100 and I was a lowly alternate. Before we knew it we was like peas and carrots. Senior year was kind of like a fairy tale. Luke and I ended up being homecoming king and queen, and we both decided to attend Concordia University after high school. College is definitely a different ball game, and there were some pretty stressful times, but I was so thankful to have Luke there to help me through. At first, I didn't want to worry about marriage until after college, but during the summer before our final year at Concordia, Luke popped the question. Life has been a roller coaster ever since!