Thirteen years ago these two got married at the Courthouse in Jacksonville, North Carolina just before Andrew shipped out for a tour of duty in Afghanistan.
A year later on their one year anniversary we had a lovely wedding for them surrounded by family and friends in Seattle, Washington. Our pop, Katie’s Dzedushka (grandfather), prayed a blessing over them.
Happy 13th Anniversary to Andrew and Katie. We love the two of you together! God bless you and keep you!
O Perfect Love
O perfect Love, all human thought transcending,
Lowly we kneel in prayer before Thy throne,
That theirs may be the love which knows no ending,
Whom Thou forevermore dost join in one.
O perfect Life, be Thou their full assurance,
Of tender charity and steadfast faith,
Of patient hope and quiet, brave endurance,
With childlike trust that fears nor pain nor death.
Grant them the joy which brightens earthly sorrow;
Grant them the peace which calms all earthly strife,
And to life’s day the glorious unknown morrow
That dawns upon eternal love and life.
Hear us, O Father, gracious and forgiving,
Through Jesus Christ, Thy coeternal Word,
Who, with the Holy Ghost, by all things living
Now and to endless ages art adored.
Words: Dorothy F. Gurney, 1883
This song was sung at Greg and my wedding as a duet by my sister Kathy and best friend Heidi. This is a photo of them practicing for a duet with the daughter of the minister who officiated our wedding playing the piano.
Their duet at our wedding was forty nine years ago today. Over the years they sang many duets together. Our love is not a perfect love but God’s love for us and our marriage is perfect! We thank our God for protecting and sustaining our marriage for all these years!
History of the song…
It was Sunday evening [at Pull Wyke, Windermere, England] and we were enjoying a time of hymn singing. A song that was particularly enjoyed by all of us was O Strength and Stay, the tune to which was a favorite of my sister.
As we finished singing this hymn, someone remarked, What a pity the words of this beautiful song should be unsuitable for a wedding!
My sister turned to me and challenged, What is the use of a sister who composes poetry if she cannot write new words to a favorite tune? I would like to use the tune at my wedding.
I picked up a hymnbook and said, If no one will disturb me, I will go into the library and see what I can do.
Within 15 minutes I was back with the group and reading the words I had jotted down.
The writing of the words was no effort whatever after the initial idea came to me of the twofold aspect of perfect union, love and life. I feel that God helped me write this song.
Dorothy Gurney
Our wedding party was small with just a Best Man and Matron of Honor. Greg’s only sibling, his older brother was the Best Man and Terry’s wife, Christina, was my Matron of Honor. We wanted to keep that part of our wedding simple. The dress Christina wore was off the rack from a ladies clothing store in a strip mall, classic and not frilly.
Note: The minister who officiated our wedding celebrated his 98th birthday on December 3rd! Doing the math that means Andy was 49 when he officiated our wedding! I copied this photo of him taken by his daughter (playing the piano above) just last week! Happy Birthday to Andrew!
What a wonderful Wednesday this is for our family. We woke up to news from Kiev that finally all the papers and legal documents were in order and my dear Sister-in-law will be traveling home with their new son, our new nephew ( the initial trip to the Ukraine and applying for the legal papers was at the beginning of July). My brother Leonard and niece Hope are anxiously waiting for that plane to land later this week with Mandy and Andrew on it. Home at last and a forever family for little Andrew (5 yrs. old). Hope met her new little brother during the initial trip in July. When I get the OK, I’ll post a photo of their family. We are thanking the Lord for his love and care in this grueling process which started way earlier than July…
More good things happening here…
Last night we got together to celebrate Josh and Laura’s 13th wedding anniversary. Josh and Laura are a wonderful couple and such a blessing to our family, Laura’s family and friends.
We are really enjoying the fact that for the first time since they got married Katie and Andrew are living in the Seattle Area.
We are also grateful to God for watching over our son Dan on an assignment away from his home for a month. He’s back home now safe and sound and we rejoice with that news. So all of our children are in the state of Washington for now. Very good news.
On Sunday Dear and I were at a local elementary school getting it spruced up for the coming year. Dear was spreading bark and I was suppose to help a teacher in her classroom along with a couple other volunteers. When I got to the classroom two young ladies walked up with their name tags on and I was surprised to see the name Ellen on one of them. I do not encounter many other gals named Ellen. The other Ellen commented “No way, I never meet Ellen’s” and then she said, “We have the same t-shirt on, no way!” These were t-shirts from a 5k “Stop Human Trafficking event from 2 years ago. Well at that point we decided we needed to document this strange occurrence in both of our lives!
Fun times!
Another fun random thing is that our Seattle Sounders Soccer Team is celebrating their 40th Anniversary this year just like Dear and I. 
Yep! I bought Dear a t-shirt with this logo on it just because…
This is my happy day, happy post with so many things that are making me rejoice. What’s giving you a reason to rejoice today?
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Philippians 4:4-8 ESV
I’m joining Cheryl at Thinking About Home in Gathering the Moments.
At the end of each month she offers a link up for anyone to add their post on gathering the moments of the month. How amazing it is to look back and see all the events that happened in 31 days. March is my birthday month which added a lot to the moments…
March brought flowers once again in the yard.
The opening of the MLS Soccer season and a 90th birthday celebration on the 8th of March. On March 11th Katie and I celebrated her and Andrew’s 3rd wedding anniversary. Andrew is serving our country in Afghanistan. Hopefully this will be the last anniversary for many years that they spend half a world apart.
March brought some traveling adventures, too. Katie and I visited Snoqualmie Falls and then Dear, Katie and I traveled to Eastern Washington on my birthday (March 14th) to spend the weekend with our middle son.
It’s fun to visit Dan’s country world. We had a nice meal out to celebrate my birthday. This would be one of three different celebrations I was treated to.
March brought the Mennonite Girls Can Cook class on preparing Paska and an Easter meal at Lepp Farm Market in Abbotsford, B.C. Katie and I traveled across the border to be part of this event. It was nice to start thinking about Easter.
Lots of good food was consumed in March!
Last night we were able to enjoy my third birthday celebration with Josh and Laura. We caught up on our lives over a great meal at Wild Ginger in Bellevue, Washington. I’ll share more about our time later and the meaningful gifts they gave me.
It’s time for the sun to set on March.
What highlights did March bring your way?
Nadia Feodorovna Bagdanov (Nadezhda (Russian: Надежда, “hope”)
April 8, 1924 – September 13, 2013
We received word that my mom passed away as we arrived in London this morning. We are relieved for her that she is not suffering any longer but oh how we’ll miss her. A lot of you have been praying for all of us so I wanted you to know. The funeral will not be until Josh, Laura, Dear and I return from England. Please pray for our pop who lost his faithful wife on their 70th wedding anniversary…
“To get the full value of a joy, you must have somebody to divide it with.”
– Mark Twain
“There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage.”
– Martin Luther
We love our firstborn Josh and we love the girl he married, Laura. God in his goodness brought them together and we can’t be more pleased.
Happy 11th Anniversary Josh and Laura!
Photo taken by Jeremy Leffel Photography
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 