We're off on our honeymoon! Our flight leaves tomorrow at 10.50 am to Dublin. We'll spend the next two weeks at a cosy house with a view of the Atlantic at Ireland's South-Western coast.
Have two wonderful weeks everyone!

Our church wedding

Dear friends, finally some pictures for you to catch a glimpse of our wedding. All photos in this post are copyrighted by Ruth Fletcher.

I can hardly believe it's been almost two months since we had our church wedding! So here is the promised post, better late than never :).

Though the week before our wedding the weather had been constantly changing, out wedding day started cloudy but dry. Later it turned into beautiful wedding weather - sunny, not too warm, some clouds. In the morning my DH and I made sure to remember to take our rings off which we had been wearing since our civil wedding. During those first hours in the morning I felt slightly nervous. But as soon as I left for the hair dresser, I started to just enjoy myself. After two hours getting my hair done I finally made it to the apartment of my maid of honor where I was to get dressed.

She prepared a wonderful light lunch with cheeses, fruit, little cakes, tea, juice - everything a bride could want and also be able to eat just hours before the wedding :). My wonderful friends who especially came over from the US, Jess and Karen, met us there and then we started "to work". They did my finger nails and my make up and I am so thankful for their competent help!
Then our friend Ruth who was also our official photographer - the pictures turned out so beautiful! - arrived and I got dressed. We had so much fun putting everything together and I seriously enjoyed being the "top model" and get scores of pictures taken in my friend Ulrike's place with all her special furniture.

My brother-in-law then picked us up with out wedding car, an oldtimer Citroen DS. It was so exiting to arrive at church and meet up with my Dad and our Pastor. I can hardly remember walking up the aisle on my Dad's arm. It passed so fast! I started smiling - or better beaming - that minute and never stopped until we fell asleep at night...

Our service was awesome. We so wanted it to bring glory to God and to show that He is the foundation of our lives and our marriage. (Many of our guests do not know Christ). My friends from my German church where I found Christ performed a song for us. Our readings were done in German, French, English and Kisuaheli. We are an international church, so our services are in English, but we both are German and my DH has family in France and we have many dear friends in our church who are from Africa. The Gospel Ambassadors - as they call themselves - lead the worship and also in the end led us out of the church. It was so special having them in our wedding. Our sermon was on the main reading from Ephesians 5:21 ff. Then we had the vows and the exchange of the rings. I am not able to describe those moments properly... Afterwards our friend John performed Johnny Cash's version of "Rose of my heart". Then we had prayers for us. This was a very special moment. Our Pastor asked everyone who wanted to to come to the front, gather around us and join in prayer. And suddenly almost everyone came to the front!
We also celebrated communion and then the Gospel Ambassadors really set us in the mood for celebrating and led us outside where we had a first reception.

In the evening we celebrated in a really cosy restaurant with plenty of food, good music and lots of fun! We also had a beautiful three layer cake done by our friend Julia!

We are still alive and doing great :). Isn't this a nice opener after almost seven weeks without a post...? I can hardly believe I haven't posted once since June 1st. Even though so much has happened during the last weeks. First I alsways thought I'll keep it for after the church wedding - and now we've been married before God for more than a month already!

I will truly post wedding pictures soon. Right now suffice to say that we had a wonderful wedding which we pray really glorified the Lord. More details for another post...

What else happened around here? For a week two amazing friends visited us all the way from the US. Seven years ago at the first wedding of one of us we promised to all attend each others weddings - and we did it! Appleton, WI in 2001 - St. Cloud, Minnesota in 2004 - Bonn, Germany in 2008! It was so special having both of them here for our church wedding, helping with last minute preparations (lots of crafting :)), them meeting my DH finally, good food, fun times, some sight seeing on the side, making sushi, having multi-lingual dinners, sharing memories and just being together! I am so thankful for their love and friendship.

I had to go back to work four days after the wedding and work keeps me really busy. Personally I feel called by God to be a home-maker and a SAHM (at last for a long time before going back to work) and I am so looking forward to it. But right now God allowed for me to be in a different place with a very different occupation. I know that His plan is good and beneficial for me and I believe that there is a reason for why I am working right now. But I do long for being home ... Howver, I realized that this longing tends to lead to dissatisfaction with where I am and a lack of motivation for what I do that I have to battle all day. Because I also desire to work as unto the Lord in everything I do - be it at home, in the workplace or wherever He places me.
Right now I am reading "The rare jewel of Christan contentment" written in the 17th century. Yesterday while reading about the mystery of contentment one statement really stood out to me:

"[...} I know nothing more effective for quieting a Christian soul and getting contentment than this, setting your heart to work in the duties of the immediate circumstances that you are now in, and taking heed of your thoughts about other conditions as a mere temptation." (Jeremiah Burroughs)

I believe my desire to be a homemaker and a SAHM to be a good desire in accordance with God's word. But it turns into a danger if it keeps me from doing God's will and giving my all for His glory where I am right now.

To cleave...

Finally, in less than three weeks we will have our church wedding!

More than a month

It's been over a month since my last post ... life has been busy around here :). But besides lots of work there were many fun events too. Hikes, a wedding, shopping trips with DH, beer garden visits, dinners with friends, ...

We went hiking the first of May to enjoy spring which finally arrived here. Last Thursday was also a pubic holiday in Germany, so we drove across the border into Belgium to hike, walk around Malmédy and shop at a Belgian supermarket. That's always fun because they stock many Frensh articles too. We left with a shopping cart full of wine, ice cream, coffee, hard-to-find-in-Germany vegetables, fresh mussels and 10 (!) bottles of shower soap. Our favorite brand isn't stocked in Germany, so we used the opportunity.

The pictures above are from both trips.

Contentment through small things

I had a busy week at work while starting treatment for some health problems. So I was home quite late most evenings. I am looking forward every day to the moment when I enter our small cosy apartment, DH either busy cooking dinner or relaxing in the living-room (he enjoys cooking about as much as I do). I have a hard time adjusting to the fact that I don't have much time to be a keeper of the home during the week, even though this is what DH and I chose together.
So I definately enjoyed some baking time today using my hands, working in our nice kitchen to make our home filled with delicious smells and make DH happy who just loves cakes, cookies and sweets.
So here is the result (it's a cake consisting of many small jam rolls):



Btw I tried this recipe on Wednesday and we both loved. It's a spring version of Tabbouleh, the original recipe is a vegetarian one. We skipped the walnuts and had marinated grilled meat on the side :). Seriously try it, it tastes great.

Tonight we have a charity concert at our church. Maybe my camera might even take a video that I'll be able to post? Hopefully I'll be able to share tomorrow! I also updated my sidebar with quite a number of links to blogs I read regularly.
Have a blessed weekend.

I cannot imagine ...

this happening on the German Idol show. Even though the guy who had least votes last night was a Christian. But a participant singing a Christian worship song? I'd love it, but I don't think it will happen.
Btw "My Jesus, my savior" is one of my favorite worship songs. And there is a German version of it!