Where do I even begin?  So much has happened in a week!!

Last weekend, we traveled to western Kentucky for the wedding of our friends Matt and Sarah.  Matt was on our team in Central Kentucky as an intern last year, so we got to know Sarah through him, and Sarah also lived in our house this past summer while we were on project.  Last semester, they asked if Kinsley could be a flower girl in their wedding.  While I was honored they would ask, I didn’t know what would happen given Kinsley would only be 18 months old.  So, after having a talk with Sarah about expectations and realizing that they expected Kinsley to be the comical relief, we agreed to let her participate.

As the wedding approached, I got more and more nervous about what would happen and if Kinsley would make it down the aisle at all.  Ed and I decided that he would drop her off at the end of the aisle and I would wait down on the front row with a sucker to entice her to walk the aisle.  When the rehearsal approached, we realized we didn’t even need a sucker because she SPRINTED down the aisle without one.  But, just in case she got cold feet the day of, I had one with me.  The day of the wedding, Kinsley sprinted down the aisle again, this time excited about the sucker.  She sat in my lap for a while, then decided she wanted to walk all around up front and sit on the stairs with her baby doll and the sucker.  While I was on pins and needles the whole time, she didn’t get the sucker stuck in anyone’s hair, she didn’t scream or talk loudly up front, and she didn’t even climb the stairs.  So, I consider it a monumental success and know only the Lord can be praised for that happening!!  Here is a picture of her in her cute flower girl apparel:

She also loved playing in the church nursery while we were waiting for the wedding to start.

We are so grateful that she had the surgery to get tubes put into her ears this week and was feeling better for the wedding.  We are so thankful to the Lord that he allowed us to get in and see the surgeon before we moved, that he prompted me to change her appointment to Wednesday from Friday (when I had originally scheduled it), and that the surgeon was able to squeeze us in Thursday for surgery (the only day he does surgery).  It was very evident the Lord was ordering our steps and leading us to get this done.  When the surgeon looked at her in the office on Wednesday, he said her ears weren’t infected but that they still had fluid and would be infected within a week.  The next day, after the surgery, he said that they were already becoming infected.  The surgery only took her from my arms for about 10 minutes and she acted completely fine within 30 minutes after the surgery.  Thank you for your prayers for everything to go well.

The other big thing in our life this week was our move!!  I am so thankful that my parents were able to come to Kentucky and help us by riding with Kinsley and I in the car, providing moving help, and watching her while we got settled.  It was also fun to have a road trip with them!  We are also so grateful to our friends and fellow staff members who helped us move two times in Lexington (once into storage and the next time from storage to the moving truck), gave us a place to stay in the meantime, and who helped us move into our house!! This whole process has been filled with ups and downs, but it has been so fun to see the Lord answer prayers and provide for everything along the way!