My last post (almost a year ago!) was about being in a wedding, and how much I love being in weddings. Little did I know that beautiful June 27th morning that the Lord was stirring up the beginning of the greatest adventure of my life so far. It was around that time that I began hanging out with Glen again. It had been years since we spent any time alone together. But we started having a weekly hang out time and grew to care for one another in a way we never had before. The Lord is so good and perfect with His timing. And wouldn't you know it, we started dating, and he made plans to move to Portland in January. But before he made the move, on the night of December 18th in the Orange County Airport my very best friend asked me to be his wife!

The last 5 months have been crazy and fun and busy, which is why I am summarizing the last 9 months now rather than posting all along. And believe me, I had every intention to record my wedding planning process, the fun things Glen and I have discovered in Portland, school stuff, visits from my dear friends Erica and Mal (who is moving here soon! Yippee!), and the daily crazy I experience with my girls here in the dorms. Roger is right, we get rowdy in the dorms. But no one is here to calm us down.

Anyway, it's funny to me that my last post was about how much I love being in weddings and the beauty of what they represent and seeing the personality of the couple in them because in 15 days, I'm going to be in my own wedding! There were times I never thought this day would come. I went through the tension of being happy for my married friends, but sometimes feeling like they were passing me by in life and I was standing there watching them fly off into the blissfully wedded distance. Last summer I decided I was tired of asking God--begging God, really--to give me the guy I want. I decided I just wanted to focus on being the woman He wants me to be. I wanted to do the very best with what I had right in front of me, because I knew it was from Him. This is not a formula for getting the man of your dreams, this is just my experience.

I think the Lord has been preparing me for a long time to be Glen's wife. I think bringing me to Portland was most certainly a part of that plan. His timing is so perfect. I remember telling my friend Delna years ago when she started dating her husband that the Lord is never late, but He;s never early, either. If He just gave in and did things earlier than planned, I believe we wouldn't be ready and the road wold be even more difficult. He truly knows what is best for us, and when it is best for us.

And it is time for Glen and me.

Two weeks from tomorrow I get to be Mrs. Glen Thornell.

That's amazing!

My plan is that when we come back up to Portland after our honeymoon I will share on this blog our summer adventures and all the places we discover in Portland. I really do hope I am able to keep up on that. It's such an exciting time for us! We'll have our own little home (an apartment on campus) with our furniture and our appliances decorated the way we want. And we'll be a family! We can start our own traditions and do things in whatever way we want. Considering we are both the youngest in our families, and Glen hasn't been out on his own super long, this is actually quite exciting for us.

Today is the last day of the school year before finals. I am mentally done and over finals, which is potentially a dangerous mindset to have. But really, next week should be pretty low key for me. I'm mostly concerned with packing and getting the right boxes off to the right places: some to Glen's car in order to go home for the wedding, my suitcase for the week before the wedding and my honeymoon, boxes to store in my friend's garage until we come back from our honeymoon on May 31st, and my overnight bag to take on the plane home with me. Glen is driving home on Thursday the 13th, and on Sunday, the 16th, I go from a plane straight to my bachelorette over-nighter with my very best friends (my sisters, and Erica, Mal, Jess, Lisa, and Jen). Then a few days later my Portland faves arrive and a couple days after that...

WEDDING! :)