"If He brings you to it, He will bring you through it."

This was the title of the sermon at our church yesterday. We had a guest speaker from Canada who was going to share his testimony of how God has brought him through his journey with cancer. Sadly, he found out about a week ago that his cancer is back after about a year. Despite this however, he is able to answer questions of "How are you?" with an honest and heartfelt "Top shelf." He shared about how he had gone through times of anger and depression, but through it all there was strong evidence of God working in his life. For this coming season of sickness, while frustrated at the situation, he talked about his eagerness to see God at work again, and the changes that first had to be made in his heart to get him to a place where this can truly be his attitude.

The message came at a really good time for us, because Jesse had just been in an accident the day before. He was coming home from a wedding in Delaware and hydroplaned into the guardrail as he was exiting I-95. The car is a little worse for wear, but he's fine. It was hard to figure out what I should be feeling. Obviously I was really thankful that he was okay...he means infinitely more to me than any material possession. At the same time though, I was disappointed because it looks like all of the money we got for wedding gifts will now be going toward getting the car fixed rather than setting up our home, which I was really looking forward to doing. It caught my attention in the sermon when he shared a quote he had read saying, "For every pagan diagnosed with cancer, there is a Christian in the same circumstances charged with the responsibility of showing how Christ enables us to react and respond." (That wasn't word for word, but I think that was basically what it said). I don't know about the statistical accuracy, but it did shed a whole new light on our circumstance.

We kind of suspected that something would happen eventually...meaning that everything had been falling so perfectly into place and we found ourselves constantly needing to pray that God would reveal to us that we are not self-sufficient and that all that we own is really His. Now He has blessed us with the opportunity not only to see that prayer answered, but with the chance to show faith in Him through challenges! I know it's not as "big of a deal" as being diagnosed with cancer, but I have to believe that our God is just as capable of and worthy of being honored through this situation too!

So for answered prayers and strengthened faith we are thankful indeed...now comes the exciting part of seeing what God chooses to do! :D

A New Chapter

It's hard to believe that we've been married for almost one month already (on Monday)! Some things still feel so new, and others seem like this is the way that it's always been, which I like. God is continuing to teach us how to depend on each other where we used to rely on our families for everything. Despite this, we are both very thankful that both of our families are so close...we would really miss them! I know that lots of people are excited about the chance to finally move away from home and start fresh, but that is definitely not the case for either of us! We love our Lancaster County!

Lots of exciting things have been happening since our wedding day, including a wonderful 10-day honeymoon to the U.S. Virgin Islands. Incidentally, the summer is their off-season for tourism, so many days we had an entire beach to ourselves and it was absolutely beautiful! The only little glitch was that our airline went on strike before we could fly home, so we had to do some last minute scrambling to find another flight for that Wednesday (Jesse's sister was getting married that Saturday!). We made it home though, and jumped right into wedding preparations for Zach and Katrina's big day. That was an absolutely gorgeous wedding, and I'm really excited to not only have 3 new sisters now, but a new brother as well!

The next day we got to host our first get together at our new home (with all of our unpacked boxes cleverly stashed in unused rooms) for Father's Day, and Jesse proved his genius at the BBQ. Last Thursday was his company picnic at 6 Flags, which was fun because Zach and Katrina and Zach's parents were there too! I'm slowly getting everything unpacked, amidst studying for the NCLEX (July 28), and trying to remember what all I need to change my name on! Finally, Jesse and I are playing another season of church volleyball this summer, and this week won 2 of 3 games! It's so much fun to get to hang out with our friends every week! God has blessed us richly and continues to do so. We're really enjoying learning how to honor Him in this new chapter of our lives.

Here are a few pictures of our wedding and other things that have been happening:


I really liked my bouquet, but I'm sure it must have weighed 10 lbs!


Mommy and me before the ceremony.


Daddy and me before he gave me away.


Our first kiss EVER!


The new Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Bender!


We're married!!!


Our new family.


All of our wonderful friends that were in our wedding!


Our first dance had a lift...Dancing with the Stars would hate us!


The finale of our dance. :)


Jesse and I in the Virgin Islands.


Our own private beach!


All of us Benders at Zach and Katrina's wedding.


My new brother and sister!