A Long Awaited Wedding

Our family took a road trip this past weekend to attend the wedding of my college roommate, Keri. She was sweet enough to invite our entire clan, so we all piled into the van and went. I was thrilled to see the Lord's hand in bringing Keri the man with whom she desires to spend the rest of her life.

Keri and I met our freshman year in college through the persistence of my Grandma. Grandma called me regularly at school and told me about how her friend had a granddaughter who lived in the dorm adjacent to mine. I needed to go introduce myself to this girl, my Grandma said. Then she called back every few days to see if I'd followed through on her instructions. I don't know how many phone calls later, I finally decided I'd better meet this girl, just so that I could tell Grandma I did.

Well, I did introduce myself to Keri and lo and behold, we really hit it off. We were both Christians, we were both pretty shy and we both were feeling a little overwhelmed at the big university we attended. We ate many meals together and laughed a lot and, I might add, in some very inappropriate places--like church. (I remember when we left church that day, Keri said, "I hope they thought we were just moved by the Holy Spirit." Not likely. We laughed all the way home.) Two years later, we rented an apartment together where we lived for our junior and senior years of college.
That's when I met Matt. Matt and his roommates lived in an apartment upstairs. We girl roommates and the guy roommates often went out to dinner, concerts and the like together. Keri (unbeknownst to me) kept telling Matt that he should ask me out on a date. Matt finally did ask me on a date and I turned him down. Keri was with me when Matt asked. When we got back to our apartment, I said to Keri, "I think Matt was asking me out on a date." She said, "Yes, he was!" I felt so bad, so I dragged Keri back upstairs (I was too chicken to go by myself) and asked Matt to go to a movie with me. Matt accepted and we went to go see "A Muppet Christmas Carol" (his choice). It was a night at the beginning of February during our senior year and we talked until 4 a.m. That's right, the girl who didn't even pull all-nighters during finals week stayed up all night talking to the guy upstairs--a guy in whom I'd had zero interest until that night. Matt was The One and I knew it by the end of that first date. By spring break, we had announced our engagement.

After graduation, Keri headed to nursing school and I got married. Keri was one of my bridesmaids, almost seventeen years ago. Keri is now a nurse practitioner and I'm a stay-at-home mom. Our lives took different paths, but we're both doing what the Lord has purposed for us to do. As Keri walked down the aisle this past weekend, I couldn't help but think how much she still looked like the girl with whom I graduated almost two decades ago. She was a beautiful bride (Lydia said she looked like a princess). Matt and I couldn't be more tickled for her and her new hubby.

He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD. Prov. 18:22