Our Love Story

December 13, 2014.

When 2014 began, I was asked by a dear friend {lets just call her our Fairy Godmother} what day I'd like to get married. It sort of became an inside joke about how cool it would be to get married on that particular date...12-13-14. I mean, how catchy is that anniversary date?

Just the thought of getting married, though, was enough to throw me into a whirlwind of memories. Here's a little back story about us...

Summer 2008

Gerrit and I met October 27, 2007. By February 2008, we were engaged...and made it an official engagement in May 2008. I was ecstatic (to say the least)! I knew early on that Gerrit was the one I would spend the rest of my life with.

Upon telling my mom, her only request was that we wait until I finished college. My thoughts -- No big deal!! I was in my third year of college and on schedule to finish in the next year or so. So we set a date! December 11, 2010. It was the perfect date....a catchy date {12-11-10}. It was also my mom's birthday so we planned to have one big party to celebrate!!

Then life threw us a curve ball...

 We found out the day after Christmas in 2008 that we were expecting. That certainly was not how we planned our lives, but it took me many years to realize that God's plan for us was more than I ever thought it would be.

By January 2009, my mom got sick. There was an initial cancer diagnosis in 2000, but she had been through treatment and remission twice in those nine years. This round was much different. Mom was in the hospital from the beginning of the year through about April or May when she went into a nursing home. It didn't phase me at how serious her condition was. I think it was my family's way of keeping me calm and not giving me anything other than a baby to worry about by not telling me details of her condition.

Mom passed away August 25, 2009. I'll never forget that day. Nine days later, our little Kayleigh Ann was born.

But wait...how could the biggest moment of my life be mixed into the worst time of my life? That is something I questioned God often. {Why would he do that to me?}


Needless to say, wedding plans were never made and December 11, 2010 became just another day for us. Life became all about Kayleigh.

That's when it hit me...God had this child planned all along.

May 2011

As cliche as it sounds, Kayleigh became my reason to live. To this day, the brown eyed girl with the larger than life personality brings a joy to my life that no one will fully understand. There are little things that trigger memories and remind me of the mom I had and the grandmother she will never physically know.

As much as it still hurts, this was my blessing in disguise.

Fast forward to February 2014 and after six years of being engaged, it was finally OUR time. We delayed sharing the news of our upcoming nuptials for many months...seven months to be exact. We discreetly took engagement photos in the middle of summer and planned our big reveal for September, right after Kayleigh's fifth birthday.

The days and weeks leading up to December seemed to stand still. I never thought the day would arrive.Then it did and it turned out to be more than I ever dreamed it would be.

-Amanda