engagement photos

Thursday, Abu, a friend of ours, helped us take some engagement photos so we could make a photo-based wedding invitation.  We had SO MUCH FUN!!!  We kept laughing and laughing . . . so all the smiles you see . . . totally real. :) 

Abu took over 400 photos  . . . quickly picking out MY favorites leaves us with over 80 to choose from--that doesn't even include Lawrance's faves which might be different than mine (he let me download to my computer first, so he's only seen my faves so far).  We only need four for the invites--it's going to be really hard to choose.

(Random FYI: The church that is in the back of some of the photos is most likely where we will have the Taiwanese wedding.)

I leave tomorrow . . . . oh it's going to be hard to say goodbye to
this guy who delights my heart so.  So . . . I'm leaving the computer
now so I can finish grading, packing, and cleaning, so that I can spend
the rest of my time with "my guy."  Thanks so much for all the
wonderfully kind words and congratulations!!  Yall are so sweet!

Here are some of our "outtakes."  They aren't the most attractive photos . . . BUT . . .I love the way they show how much we enjoy each other!!! :)

someone to walk this unknown path with

This is our story of God's grace . . .
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

It's a simple story really.
Two people learning to trust God.
Two winding paths that God made straight.
Two
straight paths that He choose to cross at just the right time. 
. . .
The Creator of romance, the Maker who arranged the first "boy meets girl" in the Garden so long ago, is still at work. [Taken from Joshua Harris' book Boy Meets Girl]

When I read those words months ago when I first started dating the man I will soon marry . . . I knew those were the words I wanted to use on my blog to announce my engagement!! :)

Needless to say a lot has happened recently.  God has been kind, very kind!!

Some of you found out that I had a boyfriend in real life, some of you found out by email, but for many of you this is coming as a total shock and surprise.  :) 


I promise I didn't just decide yesterday to marry the guy next to me on the bus.  And, I also promise that we didn't keep our relationship secret from our family and in-real-life friends.  We just choose to keep our relationship off the blog for a couple of reasons. 


And, that is really what made blogging these past few months difficult . . . I couldn't blog about what I really wanted to . . . and I was kinda busy spending time with the man of my dreams. :)

We are working on putting our story online, so those of you who have not been walking
next to us as God brought us together and we fell in love can praise God with us now as we tell our
story of His grace in our lives.

You can go to our wedding site and/or wedding blog to read more, but here are the basic details:

Lord willing, Lawrance Aaron Wu and I will be married on August 31, 2008 in Texas. 
We will have another celebration here in Taiwan at the end of the year, and we will continue to live, work, and minister in Taiwan--just together, rather than apart. :)

Yes, the Lord has done amazing things for us! What joy!  (Psalm 126:3 NLT)

This coming Monday, I will, Lord willing, leave Taiwan and go Stateside for a little over two months.  I will leave single, but return married to an awesome man who loves the Lord and has a heart that beats strongly to share the gospel with the lost.  What a blessing!!

We would appreciate your prayers for us as we make all the transitions that we will face in the coming weeks and months.  Our greatest desire is for God to be glorified, please pray that as we wrap up things here, transition to a different country for awhile, and plan for both a wedding and a life together that we can keep our focus on Christ alone.

silence

I can't believe my blog has been silent for 17 days!!!  I am pretty sure that is the longest I've gone in the past two and a half years without blogging.

In about five days I will be going home for the first time in two years . . . YIPEE!  There is still a lot that needs to happen before then . . .

I just wanted to say hi and that I'm still doing very well . . . silence isn't necessarily a bad thing.

I'll come back to blogging soon . . . just need to catch my breath in real life first. :)

here he is!!

Skype is so WONDERFUL!!  I love that I can video chat with my mom--it is great to actually be able to talk to AND see my family!!  In about an hour, my mom is going to be setting up her laptop in the hotel for me to be able to video chat with my sister, and I hope I get to see baby Nate too!!!

My mom sent me these videos and pictures before she left to go to the hospital to see her daughter and grandson again!  They make me SO HAPPY!!

Several of you have asked when I plan on going home to see my nephew in person . . . well, I leave Taiwan on June 23rd.  I fly into Austin, near where my parents live, so sometime soon after that as soon as I can hitch a ride to Dallas I'll get to meet Nate in person!! :)