Announcing Stephen & Amanda Lund!!!!!

 If you remember my post several months back, we were very excited to announce that my friend Amanda had found a wonderful man who completely adores her and they were getting married.  Well, here we are months later and I am happy to announce that wedding went beautifully and we are all so happy for both of them.

Amanda is more than a friend.  She is a part of me.  It's interesting the way our friendship developed because the first we knew of her she was a member of our youth group, then she started babysitting for us, then she started staying overnight to hang out, then as the years grew on, she became a part of our family.  Amanda and I have had a very unique friendship.  There have been some incredible times and there have been some very, very tough times but looking back on all of it, we have seen God's hand in every step and He was building us into sisters rather than friends.

So, as you can imagine, I was ecstatic to be able to go through this journey of planning a wedding with her.  Jack was AMAZING over the past six months, never complaining when every other weekend I traveled to Michigan and left he and the kids behind as we went to flower shops, checked out the location, made centerpieces, shopped, shopped, and shopped some more. ;)  I was so young when my sister got married that I didn't really get to share in the planning of her wedding so it was a great joy for me to be able to do this with Amanda. 

Well, the time finally came for the wedding and we had tons of fun!  The day before we set up all the decorations then all the girls went to get manicures and pedicures.  As you can see from the pictures below, Emma was very excited to be doing "grown up things" with the girls.  

We had a wonderful rehearsal and God held off the rain just for us :)  Love this picture of the kids :)

The morning of the wedding all the girls went to get their hair done together and as you can see, Emma was very excited again :)

 Here's my little stud of a ring bearer :)

We bought Emma's dress in Chicago at the American Girl Place on the night that Stephen and Amanda got engaged.  Amanda surprised Emma at the rehearsal by giving her the matching dress for her doll so she and Kit could match on the wedding day.

 So I mentioned above that God held off the rain for the rehearsal.  Well, the wedding day wasn't looking so promising.  It rained all morning a very light misty rain.  We spent a lot of time looking at the radar.  Everyone was saying that we should just decide to move the ceremony indoors.  Stephen knew how much Amanda wanted it to be outside so he finally made the executive decision to have it outdoors.  The radar showed a break in the clouds and just as God had done before, He stopped the rain about 30 minutes before the ceremony.  The ushers quickly wiped down all the seats and it actually made it so beautiful with a sort of Irish type feel with everything being freshly rained on and sort of a hazy mist in the air.  Thank you God for showing us that something that seems like a disaster to us and come out the other side so beautiful.  (so many things other than the rain come from that statement.)

I'm so proud of Amanda & Stephen for the amazing faith that they have and the wonderful way they made Christ the center of their marriage ceremony.  They said from the beginning that they wanted it to be all about the commitment they were making to each other and to Him  as they made this covenant that He established.  They started the ceremony out with Emma reciting 1 Corinthians 13.  She was such a trooper!  When she came down the aisle, she slipped and fell because everything was wet from the rain.  She got right back up and kept going and threw her big handful of flowers up in the air.  She went straight to say her verse and she held her composure like a professional while toward the end of it her voice started to crack as she so badly wanted to cry but didn't.  When I asked her if she was hurt and that's why she was crying, she said "no, I don't know why I started crying."  She's her grandma Mary's girl ;)

They also had a foot washing ceremony in their wedding which was something I hadn't ever seen before.  It was such an amazing testimony of how they will put each other above themselves and serve each other in the most humble ways following the footsteps of Christ. 

Once the ceremony was over we partied at the reception, cleaned up, then went home and crashed!

I'll close this blog today with a picture of my sister Amanda and I and part of the speech I gave at the wedding which describes the amazing, wonderful, brave, Godly woman she has become.

Fearless

FEARLESS" is not the absence of fear. It's not being completely unafraid. To me, FEARLESS is having fears. FEARLESS is having doubts. Lots of them. To me, FEARLESS is living in spite of those things that scare you to death. FEARLESS is falling madly in love again, even though you've been hurt before. FEARLESS is walking into your freshmen year of college completely on your own. FEARLESS is getting back up and fighting for what you want over and over again...even though every time you've tried before, you've lost. It's FEARLESS to have faith that someday things will change. FEARLESS is having the courage to say goodbye to someone who only hurts you, even if you can't breathe without them. And when someone apologizes to you enough times for things they'll never stop doing, I think it's FEARLESS to stop believing them. It's FEARLESS to say "you're NOT sorry", and walk away. I think it's FEARLESS to fall for your for a person who is completely broken and taking the time to wait for them to heal.  I think loving something despite what people think is FEARLESS. I think allowing yourself to cry on the bathroom floor is FEARLESS. Letting go is FEARLESS. Then, moving on and being alright...That's FEARLESS too. But no matter what love throws at you, you have to believe in it. You have to believe in love stories and prince charmings and happily ever after. 

(Written by Taylor Swift and edited a bit by me)