Twenty Fourteen : In Review

This past year was monumental.  I bought a car, moved 800 miles from home, had over six different jobs, and my personal favorite, Nick and I got engaged.

( Real engagement pictures coming soon! )

It took almost the whole year, but I finally reached contentment with being away from Guatemala. I still can't get over how much I fell in love with that little place in three months. Anyway, I received healing this year. 

America is awesome and I am so glad I am here for this season. 

I somehow landed a job at Red Tractor Pizza. This crew challenged my faith in extreme ways. At the same time, they showed me a lot about community and persistence that I wish more believers could grasp. My time at Red Tractor is over, but I refuse to give up my title as Craft Manager / Box Lady. 

This happened and it was so good. We were all equally disappointed that the small pony was not nearly as exciting as Little Sebastian ( May he rest in peace ). It only took 500 times around on the Ferris Wheel before we finally got this picture, but I'm glad we got it because this is easily in my top 5 pictures from the year.

 There were a few months were I saw these friends almost everyday. We had a lot of good coffee and a lot of good, hard conversations. We sometimes just sat together all working on different things, not saying word.

It's good to have friends like this.

( Not Pictured : SO )

I moved to Fargo, North Dakota because I'm in love & I am so glad I did.

 I also went to a lecture about Architecture because I am super super super in love. 

One of my favorite humans came to spend a week with me in Montana. We picked berries, threw a waffle party, hiked mountains, went to a national park, and obviously ate a ton. 

One of the sweetest weeks of the whole year. 

I fell more in love with my creator because that's bound to happen when you spend a lot of time outside in Montana. Seriously though, how majestic is our king! 

I also managed to love and like this guy even more than I did last year. This next year, we will be united. We will be one. We will be married. WHUUUT. So good. He was even more comforting, understanding, gentle, patient, and handsome than he was in the past years. He is the best human and I am so excited for everyday with him. We will get to be one during new jobs, internships, breakfast, Sunday school, trivia night, weekends, thanksgiving, production week and other stuff too. Some of it's really fun and some is really boring. Regardless, we get to do it together.

After this year, I am more in love with this gracious gentle warrior. 

May 2015 be rich in prayer, quiet mornings, and kisses.

We're Getting Married.

Here's what happened. Nick and I were back in Bozeman for Thanksgiving. We had been spending most of our time with our families because well, that's why we went back. The weeks leading up to our trip we talked about how much we love the mountains. Nick told me that every time he goes back to Bozeman he is caught off guard by how huge and majestic the mountains are. The Friday after Thanksgiving, we decided to drive out to the house he grew up in. We drove by his house and talked about how weird it is that the people living there currently are strangers. It's really really weird. Anyway, we kept driving up to a spot where Nick and I walked to often in high school and during Nick's holidays home. It overlooks Bozeman and has a stunning view of the mountains, especially at sunset. Nick brought his guitar with and we started by singing Come Thou Fount, one of our favorites. It is easy for me to worship when I am with Nick in the mountains. Nick then asked if he could play me another song he had been learning. I agreed, of course, and he began to play and sing truly one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. He wrote it. For me. When the song ended Nick was on his knee and he asked me to marry him. Obviously, I said yes. Like, I seriously don't think I even needed to write that sentence. 

So now we are actually, for realsies getting married. No more "We've talked about it...someday we hope to". We are actually going to be wed. 

On May 25, 2015, Nicholas Jacob Braaksma will be my husband. 

Our hearts are expectant of all the Lord is going to do in this short season of engagement and in the much longer season of marriage. May our love point directly to the one who is truly worthy.