by the Mall Diva

Last Sunday, we made fried green tomatoes for the first time!!! We planted some veggies and herbs over Memorial Day weekend, and our tomato plants look like they’d attack you if you look at them funny. I felt so proud, getting tomatoes from my own garden…mostly because I made it back into the house alive.

I also made chocolate cupcakes, and used my new super awesome icing-piping tips that my cousin gave me to frost them with. They were adorable!

Now, as exciting as those things are, they’re not nearly as exciting as what happened last Tuesday, which you all know about by now. But I have to say it again- I got engaged! It was the sweetest and most wonderful day of my life…so far, at least.

We’re no longer just “courtship buddies” as my dear friend Princess Flickerfeather so eloquently put it; but, as Ben said yesterday morning as we announced our engagement at church, “we’re on double public probation”. That made me laugh. It’s true, and though it might not sound all that great, it totally is! From the beginning of our relationship we’ve been blessed with the involvement of people that care about us. It started with family and some MOBsters while we were acquaintances and friends. As friendship grew to be courtship, and as soon as people knew about it, they wanted to be in on it. This really is a community project, with our best interest at heart, and that is what I am most thankful for. Last night I went with Ben to hear him preach to elderly people in an independent living center. He knew a bunch of the ladies there because he has Bible studies with them during the week as part of his internship. He took me around to meet some of his “lady friends”, and a few of them got very excited as they realized who I was. There was one who told me that she’s spent hours talking to Ben, and that she’s been praying for me for a while. How cool is that???

Another lady told me that she was so excited to hear that we’re engaged. She had had a good marriage, and wanted the same for us and was quite sure we would have one. That’s something that I’m pretty sure of myself, not because we used a courtship method as opposed to dating, or because we are surrounded by support from the people we know and love, who know and love us back. Those things would mean absolutely nothing if they werent in place by God’s own hand. They are not a formula for success; but they are blessings and helpful to us because God gave them to us and said “Do it this way”. Ever heard the hymn “He Leadeth Me”? Yep, I’m thinking that applies here. I’m also not saying that its not going to be hard work, or that there won’t be tough times, but we’re not relying on ourselves to get through them. We’re relying on the God who gave us this awesome support group! See? It comes full circle. This is the example that we want to set, that obedience brings the blessing, and testimonies like this are just waiting to be lived out!

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