November 10, 2018- What an unforgettable day that will forever be the place that we continue to build our lives upon. The day we had dreamed of and prayed for. The day that, at moments, we thought we may never make it to. It was more than we could have dreamt of. I still tear up thinking about it and reliving each moment of that precious day.
The path began through the woods just as our love story did, just as all love stories do, a journey to something more beautiful and wonderful without a clue of what the middle looks like, or what the ending holds. The middle may have some hills to climb and some twigs to step over but the views in the middle are what makes the trail’s journey worthwhile. It’s sitting back once you get to the destination, having no idea where you were being called to, and being grateful for the hands and heart that carried you through.
The sign at the start of the trail went as this:
“Now at last they were beginning chapter one of the great story no one on earth has ever read, which goes on forever, in which every chapter is better than the one before…” –C.S. Lewis
So, this is our fairytale:
It was a lovely, cold November day. The sun glistened through the trees as they swayed through that North Carolina fall air. As you continued to walk down an old family trail that John and his cousins used to run down as children playing years ago, you read signs of the Corinthians 13 verse. The verse that our love and lives are built on:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails.
We had pondered on where our perfect day would be. Would it be on the coast of Georgia where we first fell in love or would it be in the Carolina hills where our hearts became even more grounded throughout our journey together and apart. Our hearts thought we wanted Georgia, but God called us to Carolina.
It was a special place to John and me, one that held a lot of restoration and peacefulness for the two of us. It was a place that we escaped to often. It was the place that he got down on one knee and asked for my hand in forever. It is sacred and it was meant to hold one of the most precious days of our lives.
We began to plan but most importantly we began to pray. John and I had intense hearts for wanting something different for our wedding day. We didn’t want to shine our own light, we simply wanted to reflect his. We wanted it to be intimate and we wanted to honor the one who carried us to where we are. We longed for a day of celebration, not only for marriage, but for where we had come from. A celebration of life to say the least. And so, we prayed and continued to pray throughout the preparation days.
As fall began to come upon us. Our hearts were growing more intently for what the day was going to hold ahead of us, and yet we still never could have dreamt of what it was going to truly end up being. It’s funny how He always far exceeds the miniscule plans that we have for ourselves.
Family and Framily, as we like to call it, flooded in from near and far. An intimate number just perfect for the supportive hands that are such a strong part of our testimony. We couldn’t do life without them nor could we have done the wedding preparation without them! Getting ready in John’s grandmother’s home on the farm, I felt the spirit of closeness, the sense of restoration and healing all around, a desire of surrender in hearts, and most importantly the acceptance of a generational blessing blanketing that farm and our lives that day. I found myself fighting back tears all day, in awe for nearly every blessing in our lives. That moment where you look up and wonder “God, what did I do to deserve this?” And all I could hear was “Child, these are the very things I promised you. I told you I’ve loved you all along, and was preparing a way, you needed only to believe it.”
As I rounded the top of the trail that November day as Amazing Grace played through the trees, we arrived in that unknown place and precise moment that we fell into grace as we had over and over again. I saw John’s face at the end of the pine tree passageway, the man that stole my heart and changed my world, I knew that this would be a greatest and most powerful blessing. That this is where it truly begins. One of the most precious blessings to a human soul’s life.
My Papa, who is one of our biggest supporters and teachers, blessed us with his words and prophetic promises and charges that day, John and I couldn’t take our eyes off of each other. We smiled huge and true smiles as tears ran freely. We washed each other’s feet in a pure act of service towards each other in forever. We lovingly partook in communion alongside the ones we love the most in representation of who he is and what he did for us. We braided a cord of three strands representing God, John, and I, just as his wedding ring reads “One team, one fight, us three.” And as he slid his grandmother’s rings over my finger, we promised each other forever, surrounded by our closest family and friends on that day that will forever be cherished.
During a phone call a couple of weeks ago with a dear friend who was at the wedding said these words “Chelsea, something changed in my heart that day. I don’t know what it was but something changed in me. The feeling I had there and the spirit within it was unlike anything I’ve ever seen or experienced.” My eyes welled up with tears as I hung up the phone and called John and said, “God did answer our prayers.”
I believe that God totally, absolutely, and intentionally instilled a sense of wreckless abandon and surrender over our lives that day. Prior seasons that were just little seeds being planted and seasons of watering with no observation of growth began blooming in full sight on that November day. Life is so subtle sometimes that you barely notice yourself walking through the doors you once prayed for would open. Just because those doors don’t look like you had imagined, doesn’t mean it’s not the exact doors that God had pre-destined for you.
In closing, all I can say is to never stop believing in fairytales and love stories through God’s divine plan and wreckless love. Our journey as most of you know, is full of true self-discovery and heart restoration- not perfection. There is a blueprint over your life already and there has been since the day you came into this world. Never stop believing in the very things that have already been promised to you. God never asked us to figure it all out, just to trust that he already has. And now, I truly and utterly understand. And maybe, just maybe, all those empty pages to our journal are just now ready to be filled out.
Isiah 60:22 says “When the time is right, I, the Lord will make it happen.”
Faith For Miracles 
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