Dear Diary,

As more and more of my friends start blogging, it's made me realize what an odd concept blogging is. It's kind of like writing in a diary, only instead of locking your words securely with your Hello Kitty lock and hiding them under your mattress, you post them on the internet for anyone in the world to read. When you think about it, it's kind of a strange thing to want to do, and yet, we do it...

So in that spirit, Dear Diary... A couple of weeks ago, Jason and I attended a wedding for a younger couple at our church. Now, because we always end up going to a lot of weddings over the course of the year, I don't always look forward to them, but this was one I was kind of excited about for a number of reasons. First, the bride, Janna, is the girl who caught the bouquet at my wedding three years ago. Second, the couple chose the Saturday in between Christmas and New Years to get married, and that is the same weekend that Jason and I were married, so there were some sentimental ties there. But lastly, and probably most special, is that this couple met because they were both cast in the Christmas musical that Jason and I wrote in 2004 - The Arrival. (For those of you who did not see The Arrival, it was a modern-day retelling of the birth of Christ, set in an airport where everyone was snowed in.) For those of you who attended, you'll remember one character, "Nikki" who was pregnant and traveling with her boyfriend, "Brad." They met up with "Mary" and "Joe" and were both transformed because of their new friendships with them and the birth of their little boy, Jesus. Well Janna, the bride, played "Nikki" in the show, and the groom, Jonathon, played her boyfriend, "Brad." I wish Jason and I could take more credit for getting these two together than that, but it wasn't even us who cast them in their respective parts; that honor belonged to our friend, Glenn. But still, it was really neat to think that God, in the clever and amazing way he always weaves plotlines, used us and our marriage to kind of, indirectly bring another couple together and begin another marriage.

The other thought I had during the beautiful wedding of Janna and Jonathon is that I have now transitioned into yet another stage of wedding sentimentality. The first stage was when I was still single and I would go to weddings and think, "Wow, I can't wait for that to be me someday. To be the one wearing white. To be the one with that bridal glow. Someday..." The second stage was after I was married when I would attend weddings that would remind me of my own and how all of my dreams did come true and how wonderful it was and how wonderful my husband is. I'd look at the couple and think, "Yes, marriage is as great as you hope it will be!" But now, I've moved into that mom phase where I was surprised to be sitting at this wedding and not thinking about myself or my wedding memories, but rather thinking about Gideon and how, "Oh God. You've blessed me with this awesome little boy and in just a blink, that's going to be him standing at the front of a church waiting for his bride to walk down the aisle. Her dad will give her away in a formal way, but at the same time, I'll be giving my little boy away in a more subtle way." Ugghh, the very thought makes my heart hurt. I realize he's only four months old and I'm totally jumping the gun on these thoughts, but since this is a Dear Diary moment, that's allowed! :-)