1. This is a new song off of Zee Avi's new CD! Celebrating the last stretch of summer...
This weekend Colin and I were able to go floating down the river with some dear friends. The coupling of spending time with them (and one another!) and enjoying the last weeks of summer was blissful. We "docked" our floats at one of our favorite spots on the river and relaxed for hours.
It's something I think about often when I reflect upon marriage, specifically Colin and I's, but I realized again how important the act and mentality of playing is. One of the most strengthening things about our marriage, we believe, is that we're best friends in the true sense of the words. Silliness knows no bounds, and the times we feel closest to one another are when we let our maturity go and just... play. Laugh. Splash the heck out of each other in the water. Push one another (unsuspectingly) down the rock slide. I sincerely believe the day that Colin and I stop playing together is the day that our intimacy will begin to wan.
I got to watch Colin's face light up with boyish excitement as he and Dan plotted their antics on the rapids. My friend, Carrie, and I couldn't help but comment on how one of our deepest wishes was that our husbands would keep that child-like excitement for life, adventure, fun... and us!
A weekend full of blessings. We hope you experienced much the same!
grace and peace.
Showing posts with label relationships. Show all posts
Showing posts with label relationships. Show all posts
Monday, September 12, 2011
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
happy list.
because i am sick, and because i've been feeling glum for the past while... things that have cheered me up this week.
1. this music video. not only have I started to fall in love with the Black Keys, but this video literally made me grin from ear to ear when I saw it. Go, Funkasaurus Rex!
2. this yellow door. My dream house includes this door along with a brick fireplace that I can paint white...or maybe just one brick accent wall.
via ish and chi
3. this. hahaha. titled, "Haters Gonna Hate"
4. this video of a sloth nursery. again, grinning.
6. This engagement shoot. I absolutely love it, so unique. I would have loved this shoot to be ours, especially since Colin and I love playing poker.
via snippet & ink
1. this music video. not only have I started to fall in love with the Black Keys, but this video literally made me grin from ear to ear when I saw it. Go, Funkasaurus Rex!
2. this yellow door. My dream house includes this door along with a brick fireplace that I can paint white...or maybe just one brick accent wall.
via ish and chi3. this. hahaha. titled, "Haters Gonna Hate"
4. this video of a sloth nursery. again, grinning.
5. Color Me Katie. She's a street artist from Brooklyn. her blog is by far the most colorful and cheerful blog I've ever read. here she went out on her street and traced her footsteps in bright colors, then ran back upstairs to watch random passersby enjoy them. love.
6. This engagement shoot. I absolutely love it, so unique. I would have loved this shoot to be ours, especially since Colin and I love playing poker.
via snippet & ink7. And lastly but certainly not least. this boy. It has been such a privilege to experience our marriage and love grow with time. Hardship has been used by the Lord to develop and mature our respect for each other as well as the warmth between us. Colin has served me so well, with great strength and compassion... it is all God's grace.
grace and peace.
grace and peace.
Monday, November 22, 2010
real.
it's been almost a month.
we've struggled with whether or not to make it plain on our blog what's been going on this past month. for a multitude of reasons (wanting to be transparent, wanting people to know so we don't have to verbalize it to everyone in person...) we have decided yes. we hope this comes off as earnest, because our lives aren't solely consisted of social commentary/pretty things/good music.
we found out near the end of september that we were pregnant. what an amazing, beautiful surprise! we were scared and excited (definitely more excited, though). systematically over the next few weeks we began sharing the news with our immediate families and our best friends. the dreams of kissing sweet little hands and feet and meeting our little one were swirling in our heads for almost a month. just short of announcing our news to the general public, i began to show symptoms of a threatened miscarriage. i was put on bed rest by our midwife, but a few days later i woke up to a 'symptom' that is unmistakable. I began to miscarry at 10 weeks.
it was a physically difficult time for me, as the miscarriage took almost 2 1/2 weeks to complete. During that time, Colin and I knew our baby had gone to be with the Lord, so dealing with the physical symptoms and the waiting was devastating as it coupled with the most extreme grief we've ever felt.
I remembered something today that Michael Card wrote in his book A Sacred Sorrow... "The degree to which I am willing to enter into the suffering of another person reveals the level of my commitment and love for them. If I am not interested in your hurts, I am not really interested in you. Neither am I willing to suffer to know you nor to be known by you. Jesus' example of these truths comes alive in our hearts. He is the One who suffered to know us, who then suffered for us on the cross. In all this, He revealed the hesed of His Father."
we have been loved so well in this time. Colin and I didn't need to cook for weeks because of the meals that were brought over. We have been flooded with prayers and encouragement. Those who love us have sat with us and cried, listened, offered healthy diversion, and driven down to accompany us to doctor's appointments/cook meals/clean our house (thanks, mama fien!). It is one of the biggest times in our lives where we have felt the Body of Christ accomplishing God's work "with skin on", as people say.
God has held us. He is our Peace, our Treasure. He is our only Good Thing, and He IS good. We have entrusted our little one to Him and know, because of His character, that our baby is safe with Him, experiencing Him in such a way as we haven't yet. We are so grateful to know and worship the Lord.
I (Rachel) know and am reminding myself that, although I believe and trust those things, I am allowed to be sad. I don't have to be ashamed of my grief or try to mask my hurt. There's something in our culture that makes sadness into something like a lack of faith or failure. If I'm being transparent...I am hurting. Every day seems to have a heaviness to it that I'm never sure I'm ready to face. But... I trust in the Lord's plans, I trust that His heart for us is good, and I trust that He will see us through this. Although this Truth doesn't change the physical reality that I am no longer pregnant with our little one, it does change these things from utter despair to hope. For that I am so, so thankful.
please pray for us. thank you, friends.
grace and peace,
the husband and wife.
we've struggled with whether or not to make it plain on our blog what's been going on this past month. for a multitude of reasons (wanting to be transparent, wanting people to know so we don't have to verbalize it to everyone in person...) we have decided yes. we hope this comes off as earnest, because our lives aren't solely consisted of social commentary/pretty things/good music.
we found out near the end of september that we were pregnant. what an amazing, beautiful surprise! we were scared and excited (definitely more excited, though). systematically over the next few weeks we began sharing the news with our immediate families and our best friends. the dreams of kissing sweet little hands and feet and meeting our little one were swirling in our heads for almost a month. just short of announcing our news to the general public, i began to show symptoms of a threatened miscarriage. i was put on bed rest by our midwife, but a few days later i woke up to a 'symptom' that is unmistakable. I began to miscarry at 10 weeks.
it was a physically difficult time for me, as the miscarriage took almost 2 1/2 weeks to complete. During that time, Colin and I knew our baby had gone to be with the Lord, so dealing with the physical symptoms and the waiting was devastating as it coupled with the most extreme grief we've ever felt.
I remembered something today that Michael Card wrote in his book A Sacred Sorrow... "The degree to which I am willing to enter into the suffering of another person reveals the level of my commitment and love for them. If I am not interested in your hurts, I am not really interested in you. Neither am I willing to suffer to know you nor to be known by you. Jesus' example of these truths comes alive in our hearts. He is the One who suffered to know us, who then suffered for us on the cross. In all this, He revealed the hesed of His Father."
we have been loved so well in this time. Colin and I didn't need to cook for weeks because of the meals that were brought over. We have been flooded with prayers and encouragement. Those who love us have sat with us and cried, listened, offered healthy diversion, and driven down to accompany us to doctor's appointments/cook meals/clean our house (thanks, mama fien!). It is one of the biggest times in our lives where we have felt the Body of Christ accomplishing God's work "with skin on", as people say.
God has held us. He is our Peace, our Treasure. He is our only Good Thing, and He IS good. We have entrusted our little one to Him and know, because of His character, that our baby is safe with Him, experiencing Him in such a way as we haven't yet. We are so grateful to know and worship the Lord.
I (Rachel) know and am reminding myself that, although I believe and trust those things, I am allowed to be sad. I don't have to be ashamed of my grief or try to mask my hurt. There's something in our culture that makes sadness into something like a lack of faith or failure. If I'm being transparent...I am hurting. Every day seems to have a heaviness to it that I'm never sure I'm ready to face. But... I trust in the Lord's plans, I trust that His heart for us is good, and I trust that He will see us through this. Although this Truth doesn't change the physical reality that I am no longer pregnant with our little one, it does change these things from utter despair to hope. For that I am so, so thankful.
please pray for us. thank you, friends.
grace and peace,
the husband and wife.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Table Time.
1. Colin and i have recently created something that we call "Table Time". we have realized that, in the craziness of the work week with him working two jobs and with his early bed time (he has to be up at 5:00!), dates are going to be a little more sparse. so, during Table Time, we sit at our little kitchen table after he gets off work around 3, a drink each, and talk until our drinks are gone. no phones, no getting up, no bustling about preparing for dinner/nightly plans/to-do lists, just conversation until our glasses are empty. our first Table Time was yesterday and it was so refreshing. two bottles of Yuengling, me and my best friend, enjoying our little carved out time of the day to just communicate and love one another. so good.
2. this tattoo is absolutely lovely. the placement, the reminder, i love it. it makes me want to get another one.
via Jasmine Starr Photography
2. this tattoo is absolutely lovely. the placement, the reminder, i love it. it makes me want to get another one.
via Jasmine Starr Photography3. i'm going to repierce my nose. end of story. i'm sick of debating back and forth about it. i know, i've had it pierced 3 times now, but i finally don't have a job (right now) where i need to take it out, and it's time. i miss it. i have a lonely little gold hoop that's just waiting to be placed back in my nose!
4. Heat index of 110? really, Columbia?
5. i know it's kind of old, but i love this song. how cute are they? love the video, too.
grace and peace,
the wife.
4. Heat index of 110? really, Columbia?
5. i know it's kind of old, but i love this song. how cute are they? love the video, too.
grace and peace,
the wife.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
a little rant, here it goes..
i'm a little annoyed. i talked about this with a good friend yesterday and have been thinking about it ever since. and since this is our personal blog, i'm going to go ahead and put this out there.
i get really hurt and offended (for other people at this point, but for myself when i was engaged) when people belittle the blessing of marriage, having a baby....etc. by being just plain bitter or lumping it together as some weird social phenomenon. okay, yes, it might be weird that a lot of people around you are getting married/having babies, but the facts are, if you believe this, God does marriage. God creates life. He chooses when and who and in what timing. chances are, the people you're talking about have sought the Lord into the ground about the decision to get married, and He has led them to that point. to be bitter about people getting rings put on their finger/walking down the aisle/finding out they're having a baby is actually belittling God's work, so please don't do it.
it also makes people have a sense of guilt that they should not have over something that God, in His grace, has given them. if someone is going through such a landmark time in their life as these things, REJOICE in it with them! there isn't a reason that they should have to stifle their joy. i'm not talking about gloating or boasting, which is also wrong, but celebration over God's blessing should be shared with our brothers and sisters. having to walk on eggshells when planning a wedding or be constantly weary of pregnant-woman conversation is not suiting to these situations.
(i am not, however, talking about people in our lives who are suffering some related pain and loss in their lives or who have in the past. of course there are huge exceptions to this rant, and we should be loving and considerate of those who have suffered pain. this post does not include them.)
grace and peace,
the wife.
i get really hurt and offended (for other people at this point, but for myself when i was engaged) when people belittle the blessing of marriage, having a baby....etc. by being just plain bitter or lumping it together as some weird social phenomenon. okay, yes, it might be weird that a lot of people around you are getting married/having babies, but the facts are, if you believe this, God does marriage. God creates life. He chooses when and who and in what timing. chances are, the people you're talking about have sought the Lord into the ground about the decision to get married, and He has led them to that point. to be bitter about people getting rings put on their finger/walking down the aisle/finding out they're having a baby is actually belittling God's work, so please don't do it.
it also makes people have a sense of guilt that they should not have over something that God, in His grace, has given them. if someone is going through such a landmark time in their life as these things, REJOICE in it with them! there isn't a reason that they should have to stifle their joy. i'm not talking about gloating or boasting, which is also wrong, but celebration over God's blessing should be shared with our brothers and sisters. having to walk on eggshells when planning a wedding or be constantly weary of pregnant-woman conversation is not suiting to these situations.
(i am not, however, talking about people in our lives who are suffering some related pain and loss in their lives or who have in the past. of course there are huge exceptions to this rant, and we should be loving and considerate of those who have suffered pain. this post does not include them.)
grace and peace,
the wife.
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