April and I have been married for one month now. Every day I feel renewed thankfulness for all those who joined us at the wedding and shower, who gave us generous gifts, (thanks to whoever sent us the Farberware stockpot and the Penzeys Spice gift certificate - neither company gave us your name!) and who have sent us good wishes even if they couldn't attend the wedding or send a gift. We feel secure in the surprising love of friends, family and God.
April and I are helping to care for my 94-year-old grandmother, with whom we live. I am diving into my work as a self-employed website marketer (http://www.webimize.com/) with renewed zeal. Meanwhile, April is trying to find enough time to repaint one room a month, prepare three excellent meals a day, shop for a household, clean an old house, welcome visitors regularly, and help to keep my grandmother company.
Some of you received April's InterVarsity Christian Fellowship newsletter, which mentioned her possible transfer to international student ministry at Washington University in St. Louis. At the last minute, that didn't work out. InterVarsity decided they wanted April to commit to work for them full-time for four years. We felt we couldn't make that commitment, since we're open to having children when God provides. But we're still exploring the possibility of ministering to international students as volunteers.
I was privileged to be invited to April's wedding shower on August 28 in Janesville, WI, where she lived for several years. This Pampered Chef shower was hosted by Rita Key, Julie Dodd, Lynn Bales, and April's matron of honor Donna Klingaman. I have never seen such elegance in dining. Some college friends from the Chicago area were also able to come.
Our wedding was held at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 24, 2005, in Waring, Texas, where my parents live, 45 minutes north of San Antonio. At one point Hurricane Rita was predicted to pass over us, but we had beautiful weather after all. Waring is a town of about sixty people, so our wedding party temporarily doubled the population! The little white church was built in 1904, with a steeple and bell. It has sconces all around the inside walls, to light the church in the days before electricity. We lit a candle in each sconce.
Ours was a musical as well as a candlelit wedding. The pianist was one of April's former students, Gee Min Glaue from Malaysia. I had attended her wedding when I visited April in June, and she and her husband Russ drove down from Illinois for our wedding. We asked her to play hymns instead of traditional wedding music, to give the glory to the right Person. April's brother Roy Abbott, a Free Methodist minister of music, sang a song which April had sung herself at the wedding of the couple who had introduced us, Cliff and Jen Sodergren. My sister Marilyn Loree and her daughter Krista, accompanied on the piano by my brother-in-law Ray Loree, sang a song, "Strong Determination," which is often heard at weddings in their church.
My sister's entire family came down the day before the wedding to help us. My 9-year-old niece Hanah Loree served as the flower girl, though she wanted to know if she was seriously supposed to throw petals on the carpet. My 7-year-old nephew Isaac, displaying a newfound dignity and self-control, carried the Bible down the aisle. My 12-year-old nephew Blake rang the wedding bell, before and after the ceremony. My teenaged nieces Krista and Alyse, with a help of a friend from their church, made and decorated the wedding cakes and prepared the main course, pastry stuffed with meat and cheese. 10-year-old Ariana energetically provided help with punch and food, while 5-year-old Josiah and 2-year-old David added cuteness to the photos.
The minister presiding over the wedding was Charles Prince, the former preacher and current scholar-in-residence at Oak Hills Church in San Antonio. His delightful personality and long experience made for a smooth rehearsal and ceremony. April was attended by two friends, matron of honor Donna Klingaman and bridesmaid Lisa Wierenga, while I was attended by brother and groomsman Mark McGinnis and by brother-in-law and best man (and sometimes pianist) Ray Loree.
After leaving the church and a few quick photos on the church steps, April and I kept walking down to the Guadalupe River, with Woody McMahon, photographer and family friend, following us. You can see some of his photos on our website. He gave us a ride back up the road to my parents' house for the reception.
Many of our guests also helped with the wedding: decorating, preparing food, setting up tables, or helping during the ceremony. We felt amazed and blessed. Since April and I were a thousand miles away during most of our engagement, my parents did an exceptional amount of preparation. We ate at tables on my parents's wraparound porch, a few blocks from the church. After we cut the cake, April was appreciative that I fed her only a small bite of cake, with a fork, and she returned the favor. After dinner and photographs, we joined in the Hebrew dancing on the deck and opened wedding presents. When we finally drove down the driveway to go to the hotel, my nieces and nephews rang my great-grandparent's bell and threw petals at us as we passed.
My parents paid for our honeymoon, which they had also done for my sister and brother. April likes surprises, so I told her only that we were going to Maine. We spent our wedding night at the Omni in San Antonio, and enjoyed an excellent omlette breakfast before catching the plane to Boston. We drove to Portsmouth NH for the next night, and then headed up the coast through Kittery, Wells and Kennebunkport, up to Augusta and Hallowell, and across to Belfast, Searsport, and Bucksport.
When we were three miles away, I finally revealed our "undisclosed location" to April -- Alamoosook Lakeside Inn near Orland, Maine. Each morning we ate breakfast overlooking the lake, watching the Canada geese and the loons. Once we canoed to an island in the middle of the lake while I read a novel to April.
We could have spent the whole week on the lake, but we also made day trips to nearby Bucksport, historic Castine (nearly 400 years old), Camden, Smyrna (north toward Canada), and Acadia National Park. We ate lobster in Belfast, tasted creme brule at the Chocolate Grille in Searsport, and bought mementos in a 225-year-old shop in Castine. At Acadia National Park, we read the Bible together on Sand Beach before it began raining and dined on filet mignon at Jordan Pond House afterwards.
Since the leaves were late in changing this year, we headed north one day to visit an Amish community near Smyrna, north of Mount Katahdin and less than 20 miles from the Canadian border. We walked through an old cemetery in Orrington, saw Mt. Katahdin but no moose, shopped at an Amish general store, and chatted with an Amish farmer in Smyrna. The trees were somewhat more beautiful farther north, but by the time we drove back to Boston two days later, we could see entire groves of trees that had turned yellow or red, so we felt we had seen the fall colors.
In Camden, we took a walking tour of historic buildings, sailed on an 1918 schooner, enjoyed lattes at a French cafe, ate exotic food at an expensive French restaurant, and sat at a piano that was once played by teenaged poet Edna St. Vincent Millay.
On our last day, we arrived in Boston with an extra hour to spare. April wanted to experience lunch in Boston. So, as she navigated, I bypassed the airport and blindly exited the highway into downtown. By God's grace we found we had arrived at Faneuil Hall, Boston's historic market, with more than forty places to eat, and we chose Rustic Kitchen.
In some ways, we feel that our honeymoon isn't over yet. We feel our love growing for each other every day, and we are grateful for you who love us too.
You can see pictures of our shower, wedding and honeymoon online at http://biographiks.com/ We have the wedding program online too, at program.htm