The biggest, best, most fun, most exciting, most anticiapted ride at Disneyland

I woke up this morning & as I was getting ready for the day and brushing my teeth, a great analogy for this particular week and a half of my life dawned on me! Today is the start of a ton of fun. And to top it off, we get of work early today because we did so well on sales this month! Tonight is my bridal shower with all the great gals in Olympia, last night I started packing up all of my things into cardboard boxes, we get the key to our apartment tomorrow morning, and I leave tomorrow night to Sacramento! This means I get to see one of my brothers who I haven't seen in over a year, see all the rest of my very missed family, AND pick up my bestest Norwegian Maid of Honor, Julie, at the airport on Sunday afternoon!


This list of exciting events and things to happen in the next two weeks just goes on and on. More family is coming into town for the wedding, we have meetings with our photographer, DJ, and venue, we'll have our bachelor/bachelorette parties, our rehearsal dinner, the wedding itself, and our honeymoon in Mexico! Man, I am just bubbling over with excitement and joy! While trying to take it all in this morning in front of the bathroom mirror, I realized the perfect thing to describe all of this. Moving up to Washington two years ago was like entering Disneyland. And back then I was excited, but really had no clue as to what was in store for me. Who really can know what a treat they're in for when they've never been to Disneyland?! You just have no idea. And neither did I. The past two years have been the journey leading me to the biggest, best, most fun, most exciting, most anticipated ride at Disneyland.

This journey included our first year of Anthem School of Ministry...letting God prune all the things out of our lives in order for us to really grow into who He made us to be. It included meeting each other, becoming friends, getting to know each other. It included our second year of Anthem. Meeting each other's families and going to each other's home towns. It included being stretched and submitting to our leaders when they asked us to pull back the reigns on our relationship. All of this was like walking in the direction of the biggest, best, most fun, most exciting, most anticipated ride at Disneyland. And getting engaged on that beautiful beach in South Florida with Zach and his family was like finally being ushered into thee line of the biggest, best, most fun, most exciting, most anticipated ride in the whole park. But everyone knows that the biggestt, best, most fun, most exciting, most anticipated ride in the whole park of Disneyland is a very long line and has all of those metal bars curling the line back and forth through the loading area. It takes awhile to get through there and finally get on the ride. You can see the loading dock, you can see the people getting on, and you can just anticipate what it'll be like and feel like when it is finally your turn! But, it still isn't your turn yet. Being engaged has definitely been like being in that waiting zone of the ride, when you are almost there, but just not yet. It is where all the anticipation, excitement, and anxiousness are birthed. And it is where patience is grown, too.

So, here we are; nine days before all the day when all of our planning, preparation, and anticipation will culminate. Here we are; being ushered to the front of the line, finally! Here we are; JUST about to step from the long line of the loading zone where we waited patiently for everything we wanted and could see up ahead. Here we are; just about to step onto the biggest, best, most fun, most exciting, most anticipated ride in Disneyland!