Well, these last few weeks have been full of a whole lot of
celebration. I love celebrating the people in my life and am always overjoyed
when I get to celebrate with family and friends. I never seem to get enough of
it and it seems as though time accelerates in those moments. Sometimes I wish I
could press pause and have time to rest in and soak up each moment…while other
times I wish there was a fast forward button. Ha! Anyway...time to celebrate!
From Miss to Mrs…
Well, my sister is getting married. In less than a month.
That absolutely boggles my mind and I try to stay in that place of bogglement
(definitely not a word) and denial as facing the reality is far too emotional
for me at this point. If you know me at all, you know that I really dislike
change (eventually I’ll write about that area in my life but for now, it’s
celebration time!) soooo, my sweet sister getting married and moving to
Louisville has certainly been quite a challenge to wrap my brain around.
Anyway, a few weekends ago, I had the honor of being a part of throwing Rachel a
bridal shower. We had SUCH fun planning for the shower and celebrating Rachel, eating some delicious food,
and enjoying sweet fellowship with some of the most important and amazing women
in our lives. It was so wonderful to watch Rachel interact with our sweet
guests and smile so big the whole time I’m certain her mouth was sore
afterward. Ha! I got a glimpse of what this wedding is going to look like…and
it’s going to be amazing! It was so fantastic to have some of my most favorite
people all in one spot. So many worlds collided and our house was bursting
full of laughter, memory sharing, and great conversations. It was absolutely
wonderful. There are SO many things I could say about Rachel (and will once I
decide to leave denial land) but the thing I want to say right now is this: I
LOVE celebrating such a Godly, beautiful, silly, and joy-filled woman. I am so
proud to be her little sister and am overwhelmed with gratitude that the Lord
has brought Jeremy into her life. They are so great together and are going to do amazing things for the Kingdom! As the days pass by, we inch dangerously
closer to the wedding. Rachel and Jeremy are more than ready…this little sister
isn’t quite ready. Ha! I loved celebrating my big sister and look forward to
the upcoming weeks of more celebrating, laughing, and memory making.
A New Creation…
During the same weekend that I got to celebrate Rachel, I
had the absolute honor and privilege of baptizing one of my sweet friends. Oh
it was such an honor and was so much fun! I met Rhey at the beginning of the
school year when she was placed in the Fall Retreat group I was leading. I
instantly loved Rhey’s sweet and sassy spirit and really enjoyed leading her
during Fall Retreat. I lost most contact with Rhey until about half way through
first semester when she texted asking if I was still leading a shift group (a freshmen bible study at CSF). She
joined that week and has been faithful in coming each week from then on. It’s
been amazing to watch Rhey grow in her faith, grow in her friendships, and grow
into a strong, funny, and sweet young woman. A few weeks ago, Rhey told Joseph
and I that she had been wanting to get baptized for a while and was finally
ready. After reading Acts 22:16, “And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be
baptized, and wash your sins away, calling on His name,” Rhey was convicted
that now was as good a time as ever. Joseph and I were so excited to have the
honor of baptizing our sweet friend, as we loved celebrating her decision and
were both humbled that Rhey was our first baptism. Rhey was so excited she
danced all the way to the changing room and giddily waited for go time. When
they gave us the okay, we headed down into the water as a song called “Rooftops” played. Couldn’t have been a more perfect song! The lyrics state, “So I
stand before You God. I lift my voice because you set me free. So I shout out your
name from the rooftops I proclaim. That I am Yours, I am yours.” So powerful.
I’ll attach a video so that you can take a listen for yourself. It’s worth it!
Getting to baptize her during such a powerful song was a definite plus of doing
it at Southland. Another plus was that there was no pressure of holding a
microphone or “performing” for all to see but was just a sweet intimate moment
of hearing Rhey confess that she believes that Jesus is Christ, her redeemer,
and savior. It was amazing! Definitely a highlight of the school year.
Rooftops by Jesus Culture
Zoe Joy Marie Russell…
Now let me preface
this post by saying that I know I am not yet officially a part of the Mirante
family. However, I am a proud “aunt” and I can’t contain my excitement!
We have a newest and sweetest member to the family! Sweet
Zoe Joy Marie has finally made her entrance and we could not be happier. For
some reason, I was especially excited for this sweet baby girl to be born. So
much so, that I was giddy for about two weeks leading up to her birth. Yes, I
am fully aware that this sweet one is not my baby, BUT I was just so excited to
see her sweet face and meet her that I could hardly stand it. With Zoe being
Page and Kevin’s second baby I was just certain she would come early. At the
beginning of each week (two weeks before her due date), I would get my calendar
in order and figure out what I would need to do to leave on any given day. Yup,
quite ridiculous I know. Ha! With each day that passed I was just convinced
that the next would bring a phone call saying that Page was in labor. And each
day I was utterly disappointed (this may
be just a bit dramatic). Well, for two weeks there was no baby. And then her
due date came. Still no baby. At this point I was convinced that little Zoe had
just decided to hang tight where it was nice and warm. Welllll, four days later
at about 1:00 in the morning I got the phone call. Once I got the call, I
couldn’t contain myself and tried to figure out a way to get to Louisville to
be a part of the festivities. Ha! Mind you, I had school that morning and it was
1:00 in the morning. Buuuuut, none of that mattered to me. After convincing my
parents and Darin that I was fully capable of driving to Louisville (now it was past 2:00AM so they had every reason to be concerned), I left for
Louisville. I went straight to Page and Kevin’s house to be with Selah and then
the exhaustion set in. BUT, I struggled to fall asleep, as I knew that the baby
would be born at any time. Finally, the moment we had all been waiting for
came. At 4:11AM on April 15, sweet Zoe Joy Marie was born. Page was an absolute
rock star and went completely naturally. Phew, craziness. Check out her (awesome) blog
for more details about her baby
girl. You can read about her pregnancy announcement, the meaning behind Zoe’sname, and more.
Zoe could not be more precious. I was absolutely honored and
humbled to be a part of such a sweet celebration of a precious new life. I am
so excited to see how God shapes her and uses her for His glory. I know He will
do big things through this little one. Welcome to the family, sweet Zoe Joy!
Love…
Oh I just love love. There hasn’t necessarily been an event
to celebrate BUT I just wanted to take a quick second to say how much I love
being in love. It’s amazing. For as long as I can remember I have dreamed about
being in love and have tried to figure out what it would feel like. Well, I had
no idea it could feel like this. I never knew I could love someone so much or
want to serve, grow with, laugh with, and just do life with someone the way I
do. I love loving and being loved by Darin and love finding new ways to tell him
and show him. With the first glimpses of spring slowly but surely coming, we
have already had such fun and sweet adventures. Since the first few days of
spring this year felt more like winter, Darin planned an indoor picnic for us
to celebrate the start of spring. How precious is he? I mean, really. He had
everything set up so nicely and surprised me by going to Jungle Jims where they
have a cheese world. No lie. If you know me at all, you know that this was an
amazing surprise. After exploring the vast amounts of cheese, we were both
quite confused and overwhelmed as to which one
cheese to try. SO, Darin asked one of the employees if they had any cheese
samplers. The guy was super nice and said he would make one for us and that we
could pick it up after we had shopped around. Well, when we got back, we were
greeted with quite the monstrosity of cheese. It was fantastic. Ha! We laughed so
hard and snacked all the way home…and then snacked when we got home…and then
snacked some more. Ha! So good and so hilarious. Also, as the weather has gotten
nicer, we have enjoyed adventuring outside as well. We both love being outside
(which works out nicely) and have made it a mission to visit as many parks as
we can find. Our favorites so far are definitely Mount Adams (where we had our
first date), Ault Park, and Devou Park. Lots of goodness, lots of fun, lots of
sweet memories.
How Precious is He?
Ring Pop Engagement at Devou Park
I’m Free, Free Falling…
What better way to celebrate life than by jumping out of an
airplane? Yup, you heard me right. This girl went skydiving and lived to tell
the tale. Let me back up by saying that this was NOT my idea. Far from it
actually. You see, I am quite afraid of open heights…AKA jumping out of an
airplane is basically the pinnacle of that fear. Well, after talking about it
for years, my dad finally bought a Groupon and decided to make his dream a
reality…or at least mark this off of his bucket list. He quickly suckered Darin
into the grand adventure as well, which left me to decide whether I wanted to
join the fun or live. Ha! Kidding buuuut not. After contemplating the idea for
quite some time, I came to the only logical decision: I would jump because if
they died, I wanted to die with them. You can just go ahead and call me Juliet.
I recognize now that this was completely illogical reasoning, but it gave me
the final push I needed.
SO, the day finally came that we…or I had been anxiously
awaiting. I was literally sick to my stomach the night before and brought to
tears at the reality of it. I had done a pretty good job of being in denial all
week (I’ve become an expert at denial) so hadn’t really processed what I had
signed up to do until the night before. Hence, my freak out. As I tried to wrap
my brain around it and convince myself that thousands of people jump a year and
thousands of people live, I once again came up with perfectly (il)logical
reasoning. With so much recent tragedy in our country and around the world, my
heart was and still is so grieved by the brokenness and despair of so many
people around the world. As I sat in my bed wondering if it would be my last
night (Ha! Yeah…I got a little crazy), I came to a point of total contentment
in living or dying. That sounds completely suicidal I know, BUT I really had
just come to a point of understanding and accepting the fact that if my
parachute did not open, I would wake up in eternity with Jesus (fun fact: these
were the last words my dad said to me before I jumped). With that peace of
mind, I quickly fell asleep.
I woke up on “D-Day” with a pretty nervous stomach that
lasted most of the morning. I still hadn’t wrapped my mind around the reality
of what I was about to do, but knew it was a pretty big deal. I said my (final)
goodbyes to mom, Rachel, and Jeremy, and we left for Middletown, Ohio. Once we
got there, we got straight to work by signing our lives away with literally
four pages of initials. I didn’t read a single thing as I knew it wouldn’t take
much to convince me to back out. Once we had agreed that if we were injured or
killed we promised not to sue the company, we were directed to a room where we
were reminded that we could indeed be killed or seriously injured. Awesome,
sign me up!
After all of that drama, we were led to the warehouse where we were
fitted for our snazzy suits (which I just so happened to get the prettiest pink jumpsuit you've ever seen) and were given instructions as to what was about to
take place. About 30 minutes later, we were boarding the plane in hopes of
someday returning to the solid land. Let me give you just a little description
of the plane we rode in: small. This plane was as dinky as they get. After
getting settled in and strapped to my instructor, David, I began doing the math
and realized since I had been the last one on, I would be the first one out. Of
course, right? Ha! SO, about 15 minutes later, they raised the hatch and about
.3 seconds later, I was in “go position” with only clouds visible beneath me.
After rocking back and fourth twice, I looked back to Darin and told him that I
loved him (yup, it was just like in the movies) and began my plummet to the
ground. And I giggled. The entire time. After free falling (falling at about
130mph with no parachute) for about a minute, David directed me to the line and
I pulled the parachute. We shot up and began a much calmer and quieter descent.
That was the super fun part! We got to just glide through the air and spin and
look around at the clouds and the beautiful landscape. After about 6 or so
minutes, we landed safe and sound.
Check Out the Madness...
So there you have it! Lots of celebration and lots to be thankful
for. As I wrap up this crazy semester, I am so thankful for these moments of
joy and adventure. Now onto the next adventure…finals. Gulp.
