Honeymoon

So, I wrote all of this a long time ago and was supposed to post it but didn't quite finish it until now.  There's so much that could be added, but I wanted to go ahead and get this posted.


Our honeymoon was incredibly awesome, wonderful, amazing, and every other strong positive adjective. We really didn't have much money to spend, but thanks to generous friends and family, we had a honeymoon that was just incredible.

Our first night was spent at this cabin, courtesy of Hearthside Cabin Rentals.  Me and my brother do website and software work for them, as well as keep their computers and everything running in their office, and they were generous and let us stay in one of the cabins they own paying nothing but the cleaning fee.

View from our cabin

The following day we drove all the way down to Orlando Florida where Chase's parents had used their RCI points to book us 6 nights at the Hilton Grand Vacations Club on International Drive.  The drive was beautiful and a lot of fun!

It was by far the nicest place I've ever stayed in my life, and at least to me was absolutely THE perfect place for our honeymoon.  The suites were extremely nice, with a full kitchen, living room, bathroom, bedroom, and even our own private screened-in balcony/porch.  The resort was built around a small lake with a one-mile walking trail all the way around it and a bridge across the middle.  It had two large swimming pools, several hot tubs, ping-pong, basketball, and, our favorite -- a game/arcade room.  We played pool, air hockey, checkers, chess, and all of the arcade games they had there just about every day of our honeymoon I think.  I taught Chase to play chess, and we even played it on a HUGE chess board by the pool where the hollow plastic pawns were over a foot tall.

We got a 5 day park-to-park pass for Universal Sudios and Island of Adventure.  We were just going to get 1 day and maybe try to go to Disneyland or somewhere else also, but the attractions guy at the resort offered us a special deal on the package we got and I'm glad we did because that way we didn't feel like we needed to cram everything into one day.  Instead we got to stay as long as we felt like staying and then come back the next day or whatever we felt like doing.  I'd never been to any amusement parks besides Dollywood, so Universal Orlando was absolutely amazing for me!  I couldn't stop smiling from the minute we parked.  Just walking towards it from parking made my heart beat with excitement every time.  It's like walking towards a whole other world full of incredible contraptions and fun things to do!  I absolutely LOVED it!  I was like a kid, totally fascinated and delighted to take it all in, but without any parents having to try and keep track of me and everything I wanted to look at, climb on, ride, eat and take pictures of.  Overall, I think this other-world magical feel of the entire place was perhaps the best thing of all.

I can't really even say what my favorite ride was.  I loved the technology in "Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey" and "The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man" rides.  They combined a moving roller-coaster and projection screens (3D for the Spiderman ride) to make an incredible experience. I think I perhaps loved the thrill of the Dragon Challenge the most -- two roller coasters zooming through and around each other creating an exceptionally exciting ride.

While at Universal Orlando one day, we stopped at Hard Rock cafe and ate this incredibly delicious "Local Legendary" burger.

We shared it and it was more than enough.  It was really good too!  Will definitely have to get it again if/when we're in Orlando again.

We also go to go to a Pirates dinner show, which was a lot of fun.  I'd never been to a dinner show except for a LONG time ago at Dixie Stampede, which I remember as being one of the coolest things in my life. Unfortunately, due to the lighting and stuff in there, none of the pictures came out very well, but here's one.

We really should have taken a LOT more photos, but it's hard to remember to.  Anyway,  here are some more random pictures with captions.

One of our stops along the way

Cool clouds with a strange rainbow cloud which I've never seen anything like before

Central courtyard type area outside our room

One of the swimming pools at the resort

One of the lounge areas. We thought the table/seats were really cool.

Me outside the pirate dinner place

Spiderman!!

Our Gryffindor shirts

Chase with our pets Verde and Jack-Jack

I couldn't get any good pictures, but there was an awesome laser & fireworks show at Universal Studios at the end of the day.

Our Wedding

Well, I was going to wait for pictures of the wedding before posting again, but since it's been over a month now and I still don't have them, I figured I should just go ahead and post anyway.

I very generous friend took our wedding pictures for free but has been so busy since the wedding he hasn't had time to finish putting them together and editing them for us.

I'm going to try to use this blog as a way of keeping my dear family and friends and anyone who is interested updated on what's going on in my life, so I'll start by telling about the wedding.

The wedding was on Saturday, July 30th.  Two days before the wedding, on Thursday, we borrowed a pickup truck from someone at my church and, after getting off work for the day, my brothers and I moved all the big furniture and stuff to my brother's house, our new apartment, the office, or wherever it could go.  We stayed up quite late moving stuff and were completely exhausted (I had a desk up there that weighed approximately 13 thousand pounds.)  I was pretty restless, so stayed up later after my brothers went to bed packing everything I could.  Friday morning, early, I left to run a bunch of errands.  While I was gone, Brian and Daryl moved the rest of the stuff out of my apartment up to Chase's apartment (now our home). There's no way I could have done it without them -- they were SO much help.  I don't even remember what all I was doing.  Getting my address changed, paying bills, cleaning my car, bringing a load of stuff to the office, buying some things, switching off internet and stuff at my old apartment, paying rent and letting them know when I was completely moved out of the old place, etc.  Finally all was done and Chase and I, Chase's parents, and the whole bridal party drove down to Athens where we met Neema and JC and had our rehearsal.

For anyone having a wedding, definitely do your utmost to have everyone at the rehearsal and iron out how everything's going to go.  We did, and it made everything so much smoother.  It brought up questions about things we hadn't thought how we were going to do and made everyone a lot more comfortable about what we were doing the next day, even though everything didn't work out quite as planned.

Then Chase's parents took us all out to eat for our rehearsal dinner, and we all went back to a hotel they'd gotten for us.  It was great seeing Neema and JC again and spending time with JC. As soon as we got back from the dinner though, Chase and I were banned from seeing each other any more until the wedding, and, after a few texts, we were banned from communicating with each other in any way until the wedding.  I understand the tradition and all.  I just wanted some time to talk with her though because she'd been stressed and having a hard time with all kinds of different things all day.  It was pretty late though, and I was exhausted still from all the moving and everything, so after talking with my brothers and JC for a while, I went to sleep and slept just fine actually, though I woke up pretty early the next morning.

I went down and ate breakfast with Mamaw (Chase's mom's mom), Chase's aunt, and one of the bridesmaids.  Then got a bit more ready, had a great talk with Neema (who is like my sister) and finally we went to the wedding site -- a beautiful outdoor garden with flowers everywhere and a lake behind where we were supposed to get married.  Unfortunately, it started raining and drizzling.  We waited quite a while hoping it would stop, but finally decided to have it in the covered area where we were having the reception, which turned out great, even if the pictures don't turn out as pretty as they would have outdoors.

I did what I could to help, helping set up center pieces, and trying to welcome everyone as they came.  And answered the question, "Are you nervous?" what seemed like hundreds of times, though we only had around 75 people or so there.  Every time I answered what I felt, "Not really.  More excited."  Then I'd notice my hands kinda shaking and admit, "Maybe a little nervous. But mostly excited."  Finally, I was told to go into the shop they had there so I wouldn't see Chase coming, and was in there for what seemed like a long time.  Dad came back and prayed with me and encouraged me and said he was proud to be gaining me as a son-in-law, which was really special.  I hear he went and prayed with Chase as well.

Then I was called out and went and stood up with the pastor and we got started.  My groomsmen (my brothers, Brian, Daryl, and Emmett, and my now-brother-in-law Nathan) seated all the close relatives, then came and stood by me.  Then the bridesmaids came down the isle while two friends played the violin.  And then, the moment I'd been waiting for.  My soon-to-be father-in-law walking down the isle towards me with the most beautiful of all of God's creations.

Chasity is more beautiful than anything else in the world, and I'd known this, but there at the wedding, to say she was more gorgeous than all the mountains, streams, flowers, stars and galaxies in the universe combined would be a big understatement.  She wore the most beautiful dress ever made, had flowers in her gorgeous long hair, and was smiling at me with eyes so perfect and full of love that I wouldn't have been able to look away from them if the brightness of the sun itself was behind her blinding me.  I'd never been more happy, more proud, or felt more perfect in all my life as I did then giving myself to her, promising to love her with everything I've got for the rest of my life, and have her doing the same. It was and is more special than I know how to describe.

I actually don't remember the service real well.  Our pastor prayed and talked about marriage.  We washed each other's feet. We made our vows to each other, exchanged rings, and were pronounced man and wife and kissed!

Three things stand out to me most.  One, how incredibly beautiful my bride was.  Two, how perfectly happy I felt and just how... perfect I felt. Like, when something feels so right your whole life feels perfect. Making our vows, pronouncing our love for one another, demonstrating it through Christ's example of washing each other's feet, and being pronounced man and wife, one flesh, before God and man -- that was so incredibly wonderful and amazing.  And the third thing I remember very clearly is how completely and utterly thankful I was to God for all of it.

I say all of that in past tense, but only for the purpose of telling about the wedding itself.  Chasity is still the most gorgeous of all of God's creations and I am still so incredibly happy and thankful about our marriage.  I'm full of happiness.

After the service, everyone gave us hugs and congratulations and we got some pictures taken.  The rain had stopped by now, so we were able to take them outside.  Then we ate our food. Chase and I danced to Steven Curtis Chapman's "I Will Be Here", and I sang it to her while the song played.  She danced with her Dad and then I had a dance with her mom and got permission to call her Mom.

Plenty of other stuff happened, but I'm out of time for now.  I'll try to post again soon.

Married!

I'm now married!!

I fully intend to write about the wedding with some pictures once I get the pictures. But that might be a little while still.

I wanted to write a brief update though.

It's funny.  Because it almost doesn't seem real.  It's like a big birthday -- you have this image of someone who's 16, 21, 40, 80, or whatever, but when those birthdays actually come (though I've only experienced though 21) you're still just the same person as the day before.  You don't suddenly transform into that image you had of what it would be like or the image you put on people who are various ages when you were younger.  It's kinda the same after the wedding.  There's certainly huge life changes.  I now live with the girl I love, sharing our home and everything we have with each other.  I'm irreversibly committed to love her forever.  But we're still just the same people as we were two weeks ago.  We still enjoy teasing each other, playing cards while watching a TV series on Netflix, cuddling and watching a movie, going swimming, cooking together, and much more -- the same things we did before.  We're still the same people. But now that dear girl is my wife, and I'm her husband.

I absolutely love it though!  One thing that I've already enjoyed is that everyone has been so much more positive.  I've received quite a bit of good, positive, beneficial advice and encouragement.  As opposed to when we were dating when it seemed like lots of people's immediate response was skepticism. We're young. We've only known each other 2 years. We're different.  We have no idea what we're getting ourselves into. etc.  All of which is true, I suppose.  But now, regardless of any of those things and anything else, there's one clear direction to move -- forward.  No turning back.  And that's very nice.

I need to go now, but will try to write more soon.

Engagement

At the beginning of 2010, I let Chase know that one of my New Years resolutions was to ask her to marry me.  Beyond that, however, I wouldn't give her any hints at all about when to expect it, though she tried her hardest to get any clues out of me.  We spent pretty much all of our free time together that summer when she was out of school, and she really really really hoped I'd propose before she went back to school. But, the time came and I went with her back to Memphis to help her settle for her last year of college and she gave up hope of being engaged before school started back.  But I had different plans for that weekend.

I talked with her Dad on Thursday, I think, and asked his permission to ask Chasity to marry me.  He's quite a bit taller than me and was in the process of cutting up big pieces of meat when I asked him, and when I did ask him, he accidentally cut himself.  :-o

It was great though.  He gave me some great advice and talked some about the importance of recognizing and treating marriage as the major, life-long commitment that it is.  And then he said that he would be honored to have me as a son-in-law.  And said that while he can't/won't be able to tell me what to do, he will always be there to help with what he can, as will his sons.  So it was really nice.  In the end he asked me when I was planning on asking her, and I said that weekend. I think he was kinda surprised, but said that was up to me.

Earlier in the week, I'd suggested to Chase that we go to the park on Friday.  She didn't really want to fit it in with other stuff on Friday though, so said Saturday.  I SO didn't want to wait all through Friday being SO excited and kinda restless and knowing she would be just as impatient as I was if she knew, but I couldn't give away that it was a big deal, so said Saturday sounded good.  So, Saturday morning we got ready to go to the park.  Chase didn't even know that I'd bought the ring (or what ring I'd chosen), and as far as she knew, I hadn't had any chance to do so.

When we were just about to head out the door, I "remembered my camera" and went upstairs to get it.  The boxes that they give you the rings in are too big to hide easily!  And Chase was waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs.  So, I put the box in my camera case and carried it and my camera down and took a picture of us.

She was thirsty so we stopped at a gas station to get a drink and while she was inside I put my camera in its case and left the ring in its box in my pocket.  When we got to the park, we started walking along by the lake, and I was telling her how she is like a treasure chest. How the deeper I dig -- the more I get to know her -- the more beautiful treasures I uncover and the more I realize just how infinitely valuable and precious she is.  Then started talking about how I don't know what the future will bring. Where God will lead me -- rather back to Zambia, to some other country, somewhere different here in the US, or just here. How I don't know what all of His plans for me are.  And then I told her that I do know one thing for sure though, and that is that I want to spend all of the rest of my life, wherever it may be, doing whatever I may do, with her.  And by this time we were standing in a gazebo by the lake, and I got down on my knees, brought out the ring, and proposed, "Chasity Duncanson, I promise to love you every moment, forever.  Will you marry me?"

And she said "Yes!"  (After what seemed like quite a long delay where she was just holding out her hand, waiting for me to put the ring on already and not realizing I was waiting for an answer!)

Chase and me, right after we got engaged

How We Met and How We Got Here

I will have known Chasity for 2 years by the time we're on our honeymoon, and as of last Sunday we have officially been together for 1 3/4 years.

I met her when she was visiting my now sister-in-law just before my sister-in-law and brother got married.  Chase was the maid of honor at their wedding, and we immediately shared a mutual attraction.  After only getting to spend a very limited amount of time together for a few days, Chase had to travel back to Memphis.  I really don't even know all of why it got to me so much, but I cried when she left.  It felt like, "Here I just met an incredibly awesome person that I really want to get to know better, and now she's going 6 hours away and I'll probably never really get to know her."  But thankfully God had other plans and that's not what happened. Instead, we started texting each other, then chatting online a ridiculous amount, and before long talking on the phone a ridiculous amount every single day.  I'm on my computer most of the time with work and everything, and she stayed online on the phone, so I'd chat with her off and on while I was working and she was doing school, then every night we'd talk on the phone about just about everything imaginable.

And that brings me to one of the things I love most about Chase and our relationship -- our communication.  From the very beginning, we've talked with each other and shared with each other about topics ranging all over the place.  We remain in near constant communication and stay very updated on each others thoughts and feelings about things.  We're free to express our thoughts, feelings, and preferences about just about everything, including things we disagree on.  (Sometime I'll post about the topic of talking about things we disagree on, because lots can be said about it and I'm still learning lots about it.)

Going back to the story of us getting to know each other.  At one point, she came back to East Tennessee for the weekend, but that same weekend I was going up to Chicago with a friend. So I only got to see her about 15 minutes between the time she got here and I had to leave.  And in those 15 minutes I guess you could say I fell head over heels in love with her.  We didn't really even do anything. She just came, we saw some animal in the yard and went over closer to try and see what it was and it ran away. Then we went inside and I had to pack my things to leave.  She stayed in my apartment while gone though since it's very near where my sister-in-law lived who she was visiting.  While there, she cleaned out all my cabinets and cleaned everything and left me a note with her perfume on it thanking me for letting her stay there.

Then it was back to chatting and talking on the phone, but with a new realization on my part that I wanted to be more than "just" friends with this girl.

Finally, the band Casting Crowns was going to play somewhere in Memphis and she bought us tickets for the show on October 15th, 2009.  Every time we talked for weeks (months? I don't remember. It seemed like ages.) we were longing for October 15th when we'd get to meet each other and for the first time spend a decent amount of time together.

At last the date came and I went and stayed with my grandparents in West Tennessee then went to see her.  We ate out with her mom and then she showed me around her campus and we hung out with her roommate, then went to the concert.  The concert was awesome and I told her for the first time that I love her.  I'd been dying to say it for a long time, but wanted it to be in person.  The next day, we traveled back to East Tennessee together.  The long drive was great, and I think we held hands pretty much the entire way.

Chase and I at the Casting Crowns Conert

After that began a long period of time where we'd take turns her coming here and me going there every other weekend or so.  And that's what we did until last month when we got her a 2 bedroom apartment where she is now living and where I'll be moving into as soon as we're married.

There's SO much more I could say about all of that and things to tell about.  Like her going to France for her spring break and the hard time we had after that.  Or when I went to Zambia for 3 weeks and she totally redecorated, refurnished, and reorganized my apartment and made it a real home instead of a bachelor pad while I was away.  But to tell about everything would take me weeks, and this post would be way too long. So in order to post more often and hopefully keep things interesting, I'll end here and tell about more in future posts.  Like our engagement.

Excitement

Life has been pretty crazy lately in many ways.  At the same time though, it seems unrealistically calm.

The biggest news is that I am getting married to the most amazing, most beautiful girl in the world in just 12 days!  At 3pm next Saturday, I will be marrying Chasity Duncanson.  In many ways, that makes life feel "crazy".  I mean, I'm getting married! Committing the rest of my life to loving Chase with everything I've got. No turning back, looking back, second guessing, or anything.  It's a decision that will literally affect every area of my life in a dramatic way -- I'm sure even more than I realize right now.

But at the same time, I am calm because there is nothing else I want to do more.  I am so happy to be getting married and excited to start living the rest of my life with Chase.

I hope to start posting on here more often and sharing about things I'm learning and have learned.  (How many times have I said that now?) Maybe even asking questions from my readers (if they exist) about struggles I have or things I'd like input on.  Maybe my next post can include a brief story of how Chase and I met and everything.