We are finally married!

We’ve been married for two weeks now, and as cliché as it sounds, it has been kind of a whirlwind. This is our first post as a married couple, and as I sat down to right this, I was honestly at somewhat of a loss.

I might have written about the wedding day itself, how we woke up at 5 o’clock in the morning, 5 and half hours before the ceremony, to a power outage, no water, and massive downed trees blocking several roads including one tree down in our driveway, all resulting from the previous night’s storm, and how Juan spent the morning of our wedding day helping remove the tree. (He’s a farm boy, so he said that’s his style anyway.) We laugh about it now, but the situation was not amusing at 5 o’clock in the morning before coffee. Yet somehow, everyone made it to the church on time.

I might have written about our “first look” at the church, and how wonderful it was to have a few precious moments to pray together before the ceremony. I highly recommend taking a few minutes with your soon-to-be spouse beforehand, to pray and prepare for what you are about to enter into. It will give you a lot of peace, and calm any nervousness you might be feeling.

I might have written about how perfect the wedding ceremony was. How it was one of the happiest moments I have ever experienced, and what a joy it is to make those vows before God, family, and friends, and hear your beloved promise to love you and honor you for the rest of your lives. How beautiful it was to have our first communion as a married couple. How we were overwhelmed with gratitude for God’s blessings. My cheeks actually hurt afterward from smiling so much.

I might have written about how sad we were that Juan’s family couldn’t be there. His parents had never been on a plane before and were too nervous to make the long journey to a country where they don’t speak the language. ­­­We definitely missed their presence during the ceremony and celebration.

I might have written about the beautiful reception, or the joy of waking up the next morning next to my husband, and how lovely it was to spend a couple days together up on the shore of Lake Superior, canoeing, riding a tandem bike, enjoying the fires on the lakeshore at night, and getting to know each other as husband and wife.

Or I might have written about how all the joy and happiness was mixed with the sadness of my grandpa passing away the week before the wedding, and how we spent our last weekend in the United States attending his funeral, or how beautiful the funeral Mass was and how nice it was to see the whole family again and watch my 18-month-old niece dancing at the luncheon. Grandpa definitely would have loved that.

Instead, I’m going to write briefly about a different moment.

After an eventful night in Atlanta dealing with a 12-hour plane delay, being put up in a hotel by the airport, getting 4 hours of sleep, and heading back to the airport at 5 o’clock AM, we finally got on the plane to Chile. Before take-off, the flight attendant came walking down the aisle handing out customs declaration forms. She held them up in the air as she passed and called out “customs forms, you need one per family.” One per family. That was Juan and me. I don’t think it had really sunk in until that moment. Through God’s grace we had just the week before become a new tiny little family. God had taken us and created something new, and made us one in love. That’s what God does. He loves, and creates, and loves what he creates.

I have been asked several times since the wedding if I feel any different. Honestly, I do feel different, because it is different. I love the permanence of what we have created, what God has joined. I love our new little family. And I love being able to live out my God-given vocation, and being able to live out the sacrament. I love the grace of the sacrament, and knowing that God will always be at our side. It’s a great comfort for us two sinners who will surely spend the rest of our lives learning how to do this marriage thing well.

Well, like I said, it’s been a crazy, stressful, joyful, love-filled, and emotional two weeks. Praise God, WE’RE MARRIED!