Spring 'O Weddings

In the past month or so, I've been a part of 3 weddings. 2 friends and 1 cousin. Each wedding has been very unique with at least one very exciting moment. I've already blogged about the first wedding...the one where the groom passed out...several times. Then there was Heather's wedding. And, I guess nothing really out of the ordinary surprised us during the ceremony, but it was memorable with Heather wearing St.Paddy's green socks with her wedding dress, and us bridesmaids wearing shamrock tatoos on our shoulders.

By the way, HUGE thanks to Heather's hair dresser, cause wasn't my hair GORGEOUS!! Not prettier than Heather's, though, of course! :-)

Then there was my cousin's wedding this weekend. She decided to brave the weather possibilites and have an outdoor wedding at the lake. Thankfully, the weather was PERFECT. And everything was BEAUTIFUL! But, we didn't get by without some very exciting moments. The most blogworthy happened just before the ceremony, thank goodness. As the wedding party was finishing up their pictures, I happened to look at the aisle that we had created, and noticed a VERY long BLACK SNAKE checkin' things out. I calmly alerted everyone that a snake had just joined us. Amazingly only one bridesmaid ran shrieking away. One of the guys there encouraged the snake to leave and actually picked up the snake when it didn't cooperate. Unfortunately I didn't get the snake on my digital camera. All you animal acitivists out there will be relieved to know that no snake was harmed during the removal procedure. And, the bride only hyperventalated a little. :-) One other extremely happy bit of news about this wedding...my cousin had actually planned for this wedding to be in September, but her brother is a marine and was recently called up for duty. So, she moved the wedding up to April hoping that he could be there. He had to leave for training 2 weeks ago, though, and didn't think he would be allowed to come. After MANY prayers, he found out the morning of the wedding that he could have leave, and arrived literally minutes before the ceremony began. It was such a sweet moment!! Once again, the bride hyperventalated, only a little. :-) Many congrats to Kristin and Eric!!

Overwhelming change

I just finished my last class in Pediatric Medicine. Now I have 3 weeks to study for the final. Do they think it will be that hard? Hope not! I still have my major nursing class, MedSurg, for the rest of the semester, but finishing a class today makes it very real that graduation is so near. And with graduation comes MAJOR LIFE CHANGE. I love change. Most would look at my life over the past 10 years and say that change doesn't phase me too much. But, the next 8 months have even me getting a little nervous.

Next month I graduate. 2 days after graduation my parents and I are flying to my favorite city, Istanbul, for a few weeks. I come home from that and 2 days later leave for a week of specialized training in Dallas. About 5 days after that I pack up my clothes and move to Little Rock. The next day I fly to Kansas for a fun wedding and friends. The very next Monday I start my first job as a real nurse. Work a couple months, move back home, and move to another area of the country for some more specialized training for 2 months. Come home for Christmas, and pack up my life to move back overseas for "good". Hmm, am I ready??? Let's pray so.

Never before am I more aware of how thankful I am that God never changes. In the midst of my crazy life, He is constant. When I'm in a whirlwind of planning and moving, He remains ever present and calm. When I'm exhausted in every way, He gives me strength and rest. When I'm afraid of the unknown, He makes Himself known to me in a fresh way. He is my constant foothold when I'm placing my feet all over the world. Praise the Lord!