Two Years as One

June sixteenth, two thousand twelve was the happiest day of my life. 

Two years ago today I made a vow. I made a vow to Michael and to God that I would be true to my husband in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I vowed to love him and honor him all the days of my life. 

That's quite a promise to make, especially in the broken world we live in today. Thankfully though, I married a man who, with me, is striving (and failing and striving again) not to live for this world, but for the next. As a married couple we try to lead one another towards heaven. We encourage one another to become more and more the man and woman - the husband and wife - that God calls us to be. Marriage is our vocation, which means "a call." We believe we were called by God to be a living example of His love for the world. We can only do this by God's grace, and heaven knows we mess up (a lot). We are far from perfect; we have so much to learn. But what a gift to be united as one in marriage with my one true love and my very best friend. Thank you, Lord.

Thank you for the most wonderful two years, Michael. Thank you for being my husband, and thank you for choosing me as your bride. I can't wait to see what God has planned for us.

{ALL WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY BY A THOUSAND WORDS PHOTOGRAPHY}

Brothers and sisters:
Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved,
heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, 
bearing with one another and forgiving one another,
if one has a grievance against another;
as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also do.
And over all these put on love,
that is, the bond of perfection.
And let the peace of Christ control your hearts,
the peace into which you were also called in one Body.
And be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,
as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, 
singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs
with gratitude in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do, in word or in deed,
do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, 
giving thanks to God the Father through him. 

                        {Colossians 3:12-17} - the second reading at our wedding ceremony, 6.16.12

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7 quick takes {no. 13}

It's been a few weeks since I've been here for seven quick takes...glad to be back and linking up with the lovely Jen and many more. (And linking up with Grace in take no. 5.)

{1}

First of all, thank you so, so much to each of you who took the time to leave a comment, write an e-mail or say a prayer for my husband and I in response to yesterday's post. One of the top reasons I decided to start blogging was to participate more in the community of Catholic women I witnessed as a blogreader. I am so grateful for your time and prayers during what is a challenging time for us. Know that I am praying for each of you and your intentions, too.

{2}

We were very blessed to receive some beautiful flowers and plants from dear family & friends after the loss of our sweet baby. Could I share a few pictures with you?

{3}

Cheerful Gerber daisies from a dear friend...

{4} 

A succulent garden from my parents...

I'll share more pictures in coming posts. Something about the freshness and life of plants & flowers just brings me so much joy. I'm grateful.

{5}

Grace asked to hear what song people danced to as their first dance at their wedding, so I thought I'd join in the fun.

Michael & I danced to "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" - the original Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons version. We saw the musical Jersey Boys not too far into our dating relationship (a musical about Frankie & the Four Seasons - super fun show if you ever have a chance to see it!). Since then, it has been our song - which made it a simple choice for our wedding dance.

Former choreographer that I am, I couldn't help but suggest a couple dance moves at key musical moments. :)

{All Wedding Photography by A Thousand Words Photography}

Such sweet memories. I do love my man.

{6}
Did you hear the wonderful news that author & blogger & 7-quick-takes-er extraordinaire Mrs. Jennifer Fulwiler is coming to NYC?? I am so excited about the release of her book. And that she's coming to my current hometown. Yes please. Can't wait. 

{7}
I am really hoping I get to attend Mass this weekend for Palm Sunday after not being able to leave the house the last couple weeks. I am planning a small outing tomorrow as a test run for Sunday. Regardless, I am looking forward to Holy Week and the resurrection of our Lord on Easter! Something to celebrate!

May your weekend be beautiful and blessed...

six years ago today

Six years ago today I lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was an absolutely gorgeous spring day, with temperatures nearing 70 degrees (a far cry from the freezing weather here in NYC today!). Michael bought us lemonades from the Espresso Royale on State Street and went for a walk around the University of Michigan campus. We walked around the Law Quad, by the Union, and over to the Cube - a U of M landmark. We sat down on a bench where, after a couple weeks of prayerful discernment, Michael & I decided to start dating on Thursday, March 14, 2008.

{our first picture - March 2008}

What a blessed and beautiful journey God has gifted us with these last six years. I am so happy to be sharing my life with such an awesome man of God. He truly is the perfect man for me.

{our wedding day - 6.16.12 // photo by A Thousand Words Photography, Michigan} 

Praising God for His goodness and love...

To read our love story, click on the {set me as a seal on your heart} button in the right sidebar.

Keep in touch - follow me on instagram or twitter!

my first valentine

If you've been following my blog for a while, you may remember reading about the time I thought someone was breaking into my apartment, when in reality Michael was duct-taping a valentine to my door. I promised to share pictures of that famous valentine, and in honor of the approaching celebration of love, here they are:

{the glitter glue & the rhinestones...oh, my heart}

"I really hope this Valentine,
as it journies on its way,
brightens yours as it did mine,
the spirits of this day!"

And since we're celebrating love this week, I want to share this reflection with you.

You may have read it before, but I always enjoy coming back to it.

Fall in Love

Nothing is more practical than

finding God, than

falling in Love

in a quite absolute, final way.

What you are in love with,

what seizes your imagination, will affect everything.

It will decide

what will get you out of bed in the morning,

what you do with your evenings,

how you spend your weekends,

what you read, whom you know,

what breaks your heart,

and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.

Fall in Love, stay in love,

and it will decide everything.

{Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ}

Amen.

{update} Linking up this post with Cari & friends for Theme Thursday: Hearts at Clan Donaldson!

2 perspectives on getting engaged {love story: part 3}

{If you are interested, you can read the first two parts of our love story by clicking here and here.}

For this post on how we got engaged, I thought it would be fun to share our engagement story from two perspectives: mine and Michael's. We originally wrote these reflections for our wedding website, but they've been edited a little for this blog post. Hope you enjoy!

{his perspective}

I decided on Saturday that this was going to be the week. I had the ring and had received the blessing of Elise’s parents, so the only thing left to do was to just do it. I wasn’t absolutely sure how Elise was feeling about this though. I was pretty sure she’d say yes, but just to be safe I decided to leave a few subtle (or not so subtle) hints on Saturday night. I told her that we should go on a picnic sometime during the week and that I wanted it to be a special picnic. I had decided to do it sometime in the middle of the week, maybe Tuesday or Wednesday. That would give me some time to get everything I needed and prepare it just the way I wanted. As it turned out, things didn’t fall into place quite as planned.

Sunday morning came and heralded an absolutely beautiful day. I met my friend John to go disc golfing in Ypsilanti around 7:00 a.m. Throughout the round, the weather just kept getting better and better. It was the warmest, sunniest day we had seen so far that spring. I had told John about my plans for the week and he suggested I ask her that day so that I could take advantage of the great weather. At first I kind of laughed it off, not thinking that it was possible to be ready in time, but the more I thought about it the more it sounded like a pretty good idea. As soon as our round was done, I sped off into the busiest, most monumental day I’d had in a very long time.

I stopped on the way home to stock up on supplies such as food, picnic basket, flowers, etc. Along the way I had some very important phone calls to make. First to my mom to ask if I was nuts and whether she thought I should wait or just go ahead and do it that day. I also tried to call Elise’s mom, to let her know what I was thinking but also to ask her advice about a complication that might move my plans back another week. Elise had her Master’s Voice Recital at the end of the week, which was causing her a lot of stress. The last thing I wanted to do was distract her from that and end up stressing her out even more. I’d been with Elise through quite a few performances, but her Mom had been with her through every one she’d ever had, so if anyone knew what getting engaged the week before Elise’s recital might do to her it was her mom.

After initially failing to contact Elise’s mom I started to prepare our picnic in the hopes that she would call back tell me that she thought it was a good idea. I made our picnic lunch and packed a little bottle of wine with two glasses (and put the ring in my pocket). Elise’s mom called back and, after some additional consultation from Elise’s dad, I had the green light. I was so nervous, but my excitement outweighed my nerves! I finished everything just in time. Elise had been directing the noon choir at St. Mary’s and I had called earlier to confirm switching our picnic to right after she was done.

When she came over we got into my van and the first thing I did was give her some red roses. I had received some wisdom earlier, “What girl doesn’t like flowers?” 

{the beautiful roses}

From there I drove her down to Nichols’ Arboretum (“The Arb”), and we started walking towards our picnic spot. I had been hoping and praying that the spot I wanted would be open. It was a very special one: some steps by the river where we had first said, “I love you.” By the grace of God nobody was in my spot, even though the Arb was very crowded that day. I laid out a blanket that I had brought, and we had our picnic. The whole time I was eating, I was trying to get up my nerve to ask her, and trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to say. Before too long, the food ran out and there was nothing to it but to do it. I got down on one knee, pulled out the ring and said,

“Elisebeth Claire, will you marry me?”

{newly engaged!}

{hers}

It was an absolutely gorgeous Sunday. The sun was shining and it was very warm for April--April 10, to be exact. I was anxiously driving to Michael’s house after attending the Noon Mass at St. Mary Student Parish, where I had directed the music for the liturgy. Just calm down, I told myself. Don’t get your hopes up. It could be nothing more than a nice picnic.

Let me backtrack a little bit - Michael had mentioned a day or two earlier that we should go on a picnic sometime later in the week, with a bit of a serious sparkle in his eye. Loving picnics as I do, I certainly did not protest, and at the same time I got the feeling that this picnic, whenever it happened, might be a special one.

Michael texted me Sunday morning when it turned out to be such a beautiful day and suggested we go on the picnic that very afternoon. I said it sounded like a great idea to me – there were thunderstorms predicted Monday and Tuesday, and honestly, I was all jittery just thinking there was even a possibility he might propose – could this finally be the day I had been waiting for?! He said we would go on the picnic after I went to Mass “if he could get everything ready in time.” Really? How long could it take to get a picnic ready? My level of curiosity and excitement were escalating.

After Mass I checked my phone to see if Michael had contacted me. Sure enough, there was a text saying the picnic was a go if I was still up for it. Well, of course I was! I hopped in my car and headed towards his house, which is where I left off originally.

I parked my car and got into his, where he was waiting to drive me to our picnic spot. After a kiss hello, he reached into the backseat and handed me a dozen red roses. That was the moment I knew he was going to propose. He had never given me roses before, and this was just too much for a regular picnic. OH MY GOODNESS, I thought to myself! Just keep your cool. He hasn’t asked you yet.

We had a nice car ride over to the Arb, a beautiful park in Ann Arbor. Once we arrived he pulled out a fancy old-fashioned picnic basket, which I had never seen before. Something else special for our picnic! Hand in hand we walked down to sit by the Huron River. It’s a special spot for us – where we first told each other that we loved one another. With a blanket spread out for us to sit upon, Michael proceeded to unpack a lovely picnic, complete with fresh strawberries and grapes, salad with fresh parmesan cheese & balsamic vinaigrette, and white zinfandel (my favorite at the time). He had all new glass plates, cloth napkins, wine glasses – it really was quite impressive!

{pre-picnic...good thing I just happened to bring my camera...just in case}

Then it was time for lunch. But seriously? What girl can eat when she has a serious feeling she’s about to get engaged?! I had maybe two grapes and two bites of salad. Michael, on the other hand, wasn’t having any trouble with his meal. He was gobbling up all his food, not saying too much. Just get to the point, I was thinking. But I remained calm. Or at least tried to appear as such!

{can you guess whose salad is whose?}

{vanilla wafers with frosting and sprinkles...made with love}

After a little while longer Michael began talking to me about our relationship and the love we share. He said some very thoughtful, very romantic things and then reached into his pocket, got down on one knee in front of me, and asked me to marry him. “YES! YESYESYESYES YES!!!!” I think I said. I really can’t remember too much because I was so full of joy! He placed the most beautiful ring on my finger before getting up from his knee.

It really was the perfect proposal from the perfect man for me. Everything about it came straight from his heart, which is like no other heart I know. I am so grateful he will one day be I can now call him my husband!

{J O Y}

*     *     *

And now, I'm linking up this story of how we met & more with Grace and the other gals.

{our love story: part 2}

To read the first part of our love story, click here.

As you may remember, I had just nervously cracked the door open a couple inches to peek outside. And.....I saw nothing. No note from our landlord stuffed in the crack, and nothing had fallen on the ground either. Strange, I thought. But as I looked a little closer, I saw something on the door. Yes, something was duct taped to our door, in fact. I quickly peeled the tape off the door to see what it was -- a valentine! 

I have got to take a picture of this at some point for the blog (yes, I preserved it and saved it...I'm that type of gal!). Let me describe it to you for now. This was not just any valentine. It was a handmade valentine. The valentine was made of peach colored paper, cut into the shape of a heart, and then folded in half. On this outer half were three small white foam hearts, with my initials on them in glitter glue. Yes, glitter glue. You can imagine my surprise! The folded heart was tied shut with red ribbon - the kind you curl with scissors (and it was curled). I opened it up, and inside was a white lace doily heart on one half, and a little love poem on the other (written in green marker on yellow paper - can you visualize the color combinations going on here? So my Michael. And I so loved it.). But there was no name signed! 

"Who could it be from?!" I said. 

My roommate smiled and looked at me like I was crazy. Of course, we both knew there was really only one person it could be from. But I was still in a state of denial about that, and proceeded to try to think of all the possible people it could be from (couldn't come up with any). Needless to say, I was very excited, but I didn't contact Michael right away, as I figured he wasn't expecting me to see it until I opened the door to leave my apartment the next morning on Valentine's Day (especially because it was so securely duct taped to the door - I still think that detail is funny!).

The next afternoon we met for coffee at a local shop. I gave Michael some Valentine's cookies I had baked for him, and mentioned that I had found a little something on my door. "Oh, really?" he said innocently, his cheeks turning bright red. 

"Yes! And I think it was absolutely the cutest thing ever!!" I gushed. He smiled and laughed.

{young love...in june 2008}

But! Even then we still were not *officially* dating, because I wanted us both to pray about our possible relationship before we made it official. And, thankfully, my dear Michael was up for that--although I'm pretty sure his amount of discernment needed was less than mine. :)

We officially began dating March 13, 2008. I remember the day very clearly. It was unseasonably warm for March in Michigan, so we both got lemonades and went on a walk around the campus. After I asked Michael if he was still interested in having me for his girlfriend (he was), I felt so joyful and full of peace. We went to daily Mass early that evening to celebrate, give thanks, and start our official dating relationship off on the right note. 

We had so much fun dating in college. Many long conversations were shared, often times late into the night...talking about our past, our beliefs, our dreams for the future. It's such fun to reminisce on these sweet times in our relationship. Not that it isn't still sweet, but there's just something about those beginning times in a relationship, you know?

I'll share the next few years of our journey via pictures...

{playing corn hole - a good ol' midwestern game!
on Michael's first visit to my home near Cincinnati
Summer 2008}

{on a romantic carriage ride through Central Park
Michael's first trip to NYC - winter 2008}

{St. Mary's Christmas Dance - 2008 - Michael's face looks so young here!}

{New Year's Eve 2008}

{Michael's birthday - January 2009}

{my undergraduate graduation ceremony - May 2009}

{four-wheeling in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (heaven help me!) - Summer 2009}

{my birthday - September 2009}

{Easter 2010}

{at a friend's wedding - May 2010}

{in a wedding together - July 2010}

{I caught the bouquet at a friend's wedding in October 2010.}

{Festival of Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo - Holidays 2010}

{after my performance as Beth in Little Women the opera - March 2011}

Unbeknownst to me, Michael had asked my dad for my hand in marriage the night before this last picture was taken. Which brings me to what will be my next post in this series à la love.....
our engagement story!

in the beginning {our love story: part 1}

{our first picture - taken at St. Mary's - March 2008}

Michael and I first met in the fall of 2007, when we were both students at the University of Michigan. I was the music director of the Newman Choir (a student ensemble) which sang at the weekly 7:00 p.m. Mass at our church, St. Mary Student Parish. Michael joined the choir (his first choral experience!), and that's how we met. Michael tells me he thought I was cute, but that I seemed too old for him to have a chance. I remember taking note of his height (I'm pretty tall, too), but other than that I was focused on learning all the new choir members' names at the beginning of the year.

{spring dance at St. Mary's in 2008}

As the year went on we started talking (and sometimes flirting) at various gatherings or with a group of students after Sunday Mass at Cottage Inn Pizza (yum!). We would often see each other at daily Mass too, which was another chance for us to talk. I really admired Michael for his strong faith and the way he was living it. Michael tells me he liked seeing me at daily Mass because he got to see another side of me - not in "choir director mode." I suppose "choir director mode" could be a bit...umm...intense/high energy/leeeetle-crazy at times. :) 

One day after daily Mass, Michael stopped me at the water fountain and asked if I had dinner plans. I did not. So we headed towards Noodles & Co. on State Street for dinner. 

At this point I had butterflies in my stomach. You should probably know that no guy had ever asked me out before, and I was wondering if Michael had, in fact, just asked me out to dinner...! On the walk over there, we bumped into someone else we knew, and Michael asked her to join us. "Oh," I thought to myself. "Maybe this is not what I thought it was...?" She declined, and so it was just the two of us at dinner (which I was happy about).  [Michael says now that he was happy, too - he had asked without thinking very much because he was nervous!]

{after this picture was taken we realized we were sitting in a patch of poison ivy!}

What I remember most from that dinner is how immediately comfortable I felt talking to Michael and being with him. He was not like most people I had met, and definitely unlike any other guy I had met. I knew it could be serious pretty quickly. And frankly, I was scared.

Now thank goodness God blessed Michael with the gifts of patience and persistence, because I did not exactly jump into a relationship. In fact, I came up with every excuse I could for why we should not, could not be together as a couple. My favorite one to mention was that he was "too young for me - far too young for me" (he's a little over a year younger than me - so not that serious!). When my family or friends would ask about him, I'd say "He's just a nice guy. He's just being friendly. He doesn't actually like me." Even though he would ask me out to lunch/dinner multiple times a week, walk fifteen minutes from his dorm to bring cookies to me at my apartment, invite me to join him at Church gatherings. Oh no, he didn't like me. He was just friendly. :)

On February 13, 2008, my roommate, Gabriele and I were up pretty late doing homework in the living room of our apartment. Midnight was quickly approaching when we heard something at our apartment door. It was a scratching-sort-of-rustling sound, and it was right by the doorknob. We looked at each other. "Did you hear that?!" I said. She put her finger to her lips to signal for me to be quiet! I promptly curled up into a ball on the couch where I was sitting. Thankfully, brave, Jersey-girl Gabriele tiptoed over to the door and without making a sound, hooked the chain lock for some extra protection. All the while, the noise continued. She peeked out the peephole. "What do you see?!" I said. Again, I got shushed, so as not to be heard by the pending intruder. A few seconds later we heard footsteps walk away from the door........and................silence.

Aaaaaaaaahhhh! We both freaked out a little. She said she couldn't see the person's face - that he/she was covered with a hood. We invented possible scenarios about what could have just happened. Eventually we came to the conclusion that it might have been our eccentric landlady stuffing something in our door. We tried to go back to studying. But I couldn't focus. 

"Can I just open the door and see if there's anything out there?" I asked. 
"What?!" Gabriele questioned.
"I just want to see if there is actually a note or something stuffed in our door!"
"Leave the chain lock chained!" Gabriele said, urging caution.

I undid the deadbolt and slowly cracked open the door.

Oh my, this is getting to be quite a long post..............to be continued!

To read part two of our love story, click here!