Engaged!

It's been a few months since my last blog entry. A lot has happened since this summer and I thought given recent events it might be a good time to update.

This semester has been challenging for a number of reasons. Course work has been heavy, I've been laid off from my job at Prince of Peace, and I find myself missing Emily like crazy while she is on internship in Ohio. It's been really difficult for both of us to be 500 miles apart 90% of the time. My visits to Toledo have been great but I wish they were longer and more frequent...

I've met some really great people on my visits to Toledo. Two members of the congregation, Gene and Janet, have really been a great help to Emily and have taken very good care of her, they always take us out to dinner when I come to town and always include Emily in things that they do. There are a lot of older members with very low incomes. The amazing thing, and Emily will back me up on this, is that they all love to give, sometimes until it hurts, most times it hurts. It's as if the charge they get from giving makes the hurt worth it...

Two other people out of many worth mentioning that I am particularly fond of are Adam and Mildred. Adam is probably in his late 30's with a mentality somewhat like a 10 year old. He is a very "sweet" guy, as Emily would say. He's always very happy and very excited to talk to you. He is also very concerned with people liking him and always does his best to put his best foot forward and is very thoughtful and great. He loves the Toledo Mud-Hens so Emily and I are thinking about taking him to a game in the spring.

Mildred is very old and grandmotherly. She refers to me as Emily's "Sweet Petunia" which I find hilarious. We took Mildred to an event hosted by a local church at a near-by comedy club when I was in Toledo for Thanksgiving and we all had a wonderful time. Every time I would come to Toledo, Emily would say that I had to meet Mildred and I was very glad when I finally met her.

This school year I have the amazing opportunity to work in the Lutheran Office of Governmental Ministry of the New Jersey Synod of the ELCA. This office works with the state government independently and through coalitions to try and pass legislation that the church believes strongly in. We have been focusing on Low-income housing, LIHEAP (Low-Income Heating Energy Assistance Program), Anti-hunger, and Anti-poverty issues. It's been a wonderful experience and I work with an amazing supervisor who teaches me more than I ever imagined I would learn. So if you want to know what I plan to do with my seminary degree, this is it. I want to advocate for the marginalized and help work with state and/or federal governments to improve the qualitiy of life for everyone, no exceptions.

Ok, so you're probably reading this thinking "wow, this is all really nice but I started reading because it says 'engaged' at the top of the page!"

Emily and I are officially engaged to be married as of December 24, 2008. We will be married in Newton, NC on October 10, 2009. So far we've picked a date (but not a time) and the places to have the ceremony and reception (as long as Emily's parents approve.) The colors for the wedding will be brown and cream with both the bridesmaid's dresses and the grooms tuxes being brown with cream colored accents. We haven't maid official decisions about the bridal party but I think we should have that nailed down in the next week. Emily and her mom are out right now getting pedicures and if I had to guess, I'd say that they were also buying a wedding gown.

We've also decided on some things for the service. We're definitely going to have communion but we're going to skip the unity candle. There will be lots of singing and hopefully lots of involvement from our seminarianish friends. We met with Pastor Jane of Beth Eden this morning and we were very happy with the outcomes from that meeting so things are certainly looking up, as if being engaged wasn't enough :-D

We are both very thankful for your kind regards and prayers! More to come later, I'm sure.