life is funny.  a year ago i would not have imagined what this past month would hold.  i have hit every emotion possible - that is for sure.  let's recap:

-moved home for 2 weeks before the wedding.  nervous, scared, annoyed, frustrated, excited, anxious...

-GOT MARRIED.  finally!  the wedding week was insane... but as i look back on it (and watch the video so that i can actually remember it all!) i realize that i would not change a single thing.  it was amazing!  i have never felt so loved and cared for!  my friends and family surrounded me with such an awesome support!  i was reminded daily how blessed i am and i was simply in awe. 

my daddy.

ALL of my BEST friends.

and my HUSBAND!...

THEN we spent an amazing week in Saint Maarten... which was more relaxing than i could ever imagine!  and much needed!

the day we got back from our honeymoon, reality was bittersweet.  but WATCH HOW GOD WORKED...

on sunday, we flew into atlanta, where we had a small layover until flying to chicago.  atl is insane, and darin and i have had experience with taking bumps here, so we volunteered for one, knowing we would be kindly taken care of for it!  and we were!  we spent the night in an amazing hotel in atl and each received $400 flight vouchers.  PLUS we got food vouchers.  now, we are newly married, and fairly poor.  so knowing that we can have a free flight soon AND not having to spend money on food for a few days really helped!  that's blessing #1.

So then... monday morning, while we were wasting time before our flight that evening, my parents called to let me know that my grandpa had passed away.  now, this has been a long time coming... but that does not make it any easier.  i couldn't stand not being there with my family, so we headed to the airport to figure something out...

i thought we might be able to get our flight to chicago switched to indy so we could be there that afternoon.  Delta (the best airline ever) was perfectly willing to do that.  BUT our luggage was already in chicago and they couldn't get it to us.  so she was going to fly us to chicago and THEN to indy... but we were flying into chicago midway and delta only flies chicago to indy from chicago o-hare airport.  (confusing, but stay with me!)

SO.  she decided to keep us on our regular flight and put us out of o-hare for FREE the next morning!  so we flew home, unpacked, repacked, and flew out the next morning. - BLESSING #2!

the problem came when we needed to get to the airport the next morning... everyone seemed to be out of town here that week... so darin called our pastor to see if he could help us problem solve.  after several calls and possible solutions that fell through, he finally just called back and said "ok, don't worry about it!  there will be a limo service outside of your apartment at 6:30am tomorrow morning to take you to the airport.  it's all taken care of - thanks for watching our house a few weeks ago!"  ABSOLUTELY FREE!  big blessing #3!

you might think i would stop there, but i won't!  see, i haven't worked for a month, and darin 3 weeks, so money is really getting tight at this point - and God was going to majorly take care of us!  our original plan was to fly to TN the weekend after we got back to pick up my car and all of our stuff from the wedding, then drive back to IL.  well, with being in IN for the funeral, this wouldn't work.  instead, we rode home with my parents after the funeral and drove back.  we got to cancel our flights, which saved lots of money - and we never had to pay for gas!  BLESSINGS 4,5, and beyond!

but in real life, the funeral was a really hard thing to handle.  i'm not sure that it has all even hit me yet, but that was a huge shift of emotion to go through.  the funeral and visitation was absolutely wonderful - so many friends and family came... and, once again, i was reminded of how much those people mean to me.  i will miss my papaw greatly - and i'll still cry everytime i think about it.  but i am so thankful for the support i have found.  God placed himself in the center when I lost all control.  I can't even describe how blessed i feel.  there's no other words.