What a week! There are no words to begin to describe the array of emotions I felt this last week....but of course I will try :)
We will start with the view from our hotel room...how's that for the start of our time in Queenstown? Sam found us the GREATEST hotel with the most AMAZING view ever! And it doesn't get dark there until about 10pm!!! That was our view until we fell asleep. (When I say "we" we all know I mean me because 10pm is well past when I start falling asleep watching TV or a movie)
It was such an incredible time for Sam and I. I feel overwhelmed with thanks as I sit down to share with you. I was quite nervous going into this wedding and this week. I am not sure if it was being away from America on Thanksgiving or the fact that this was the first wedding I had been to since my own. I was full of emotion as we headed down there. In typical Dana and Sam fashion there was much drama and adventure even getting to Queenstown. We had to go to the airport to pick up something that was held in customs a day before we were supposed to leave, we almost missed our plane because the traffic was so bad in Auckland and I had a melt down right before we left...but like we always do...we made it. I looked at Sam once we were sitting on the plane and said, "how do we do it? we always make it when all the odds seem to be against us." This was no different.
I was reminded though that sometimes the sweetest things in life come after the hardest trials. I don't why that is but in my life some of the best moments have come after I have walked through this very very scary wall of fear or chaos or pain. In a small way I experienced that this week. Queenstown was absolutely BEAUTIFUL as you can see from the picture. It was exactly what Sam and I needed. It was fun to get away, but more than that it was fun to work together, serving people and capturing moments that were priceless.
I have been in 15 weddings over the years and know how much work goes into a wedding. In fact, when I saw the bridesmaids working so hard I just had to sit back and smile. It brought back so many fun memories of the weddings I have got to be a part of over the years watching the girls work all weekend long. I even took a picture. Oh how many many many times was this my job at a wedding...
Little did I know, though, just how shattered we would be at the end of our work day! We worked like crazy! We worked a full 12 hours the day of the wedding and by the end we were crawling into bed. It was amazing to see Sam in action at the wedding, but even more special was to see us interact together. We work like a team and love working together to capture what we both sense and see in our hearts and eyes. There was a synergy about us. So much so that all day long we received compliments about how great we worked together, what an amazing team we were, and how it just appears to be that we were made for each other. It was quite sweet the first time someone mentioned it, but as the day wore on I just smiled with delight. It was how it felt for both of us, but I guess you just don't think that anyone will notice.
There have been 4 or 5 times in my life where I have felt like "I was created to do that." Doing this wedding with Sam was one of those moments. Ironically that was very unexpected for me. I know I love being with Sam and loved the thought of creating something with him and building a business of service together, but in my wildest dreams I didn't expect God to give me the gift he did. There is a part of my soul that comes alive when I get to communicate. The mix of communicating some one's love story with my husband had a surreal like quality to it. I was so nervous about how we would do together, so nervous that I would even be a help to him that day and just felt so unsure of myself. But in the end I had the privilege of capturing the most positive moment of love and won the trust of a couple and a wedding party for the day and then quickly maneuvered them from one photo shoot to another (we went to 5 different locations the day of the wedding!) If you are familiar with Strengthfinder, I used all 5 of my strengths all day long. Who knew? God did. It was one of those moments where I secretly and quietly said to the Lord, "Thank you. Thank you for knowing me better than I know myself."
The whole experience was a gift from God for me. It made me reflect on love and life and what He is doing in our life. It helped me trust Him more and in God like fashion, He had more in store than I realized. Sam and I have something special and I think that since the moment we met before heading to Fiji for 10 days, there has been an indescribable spark and connection of friendship that quickly turned to love, sacrifice and commitment. We both saw it so clearly this week. We have a love and strength to our relationship and I felt God smiling down on us this week. It was as if He was giving us a little gift to continue persevering through this season of life. We have something that you can't manufacture, you can't perfectly plan and you can't spend heaps of money on. As we sat by the lake the day after the wedding, eating dinner and recovering I think I realized that part of what I experienced this week and in this "job" was God. We both took a big risk this week and both fully embraced who we were. We forgot about our insecurities and moved our fear over to create something special and unique for another human heart. There was something so spiritual that happened in my soul. I told Sam that I saw God in the most unexpected of places yesterday....our work. Sounds funny because I know God is always with us and we minister out of who He is and who He created us to be, but for me I had the same feeling I had when I was doing something that looked so stereo-typically "ministry." When I was in South Africa, when I was mentoring college girls, when I was in an orphanage. I think this last year God has been doing something so beyond me that I am just starting to fully understand it and live in it. While my life this year has looked nothing like it has in the last 10 or so years, my heart for God, people and serving both people and God has increased. Isn't that what it's about? Isn't that what I taught for so many years? Isn't that what we over and over went through in countless mentoring sessions with people? It was. But I think God wanted me to have a front row seat to his heart, to His love and to His service of humanity. He is at work all around me and while my job doesn't always look like it has, His heart never changes. That heart is in me and now it is in my marriage. To see the fullness of God and who He is in spite of Sam and I and because of Sam and I being made in His image was nothing short than supernatural for me.
While I was having this spiritual experience life continued to swirl around us...like it does, doesn't it? The day was such a snapshot of life for me. So much can coexist at once. God can be talking, people can be enjoying a moment of a life time, tears can be flowing, jobs can be happening and life never ceases to stop. This day and experience was no different.
There were definitely some challenges to the day, which made me love it even more...I slipped and fell once, got two cuts in one of the outside photo shoots, and was such a mess from the wind and the rain that when I walked into our last spot to take pictures a lady looked at me and smiled, saying, "Well, don't you look quite disheveled dear." I smiled, of course, and immediately asked Sam how bad I really looked! It made me laugh, but I just didn't care because we were having so much fun. The pictures turned out unbelievable and the bride and groom had the wedding of their dreams. She had every element you can dream of in her day. And she looked picture perfect even as we were leaving the wedding 12 hours after we had first laid eyes on her that morning.
And I left the wedding and Queenstown different. My hope was restored. My heart was refreshed. My love was rekindled. I was so thankful for the wedding we made memories for, but oh so much more thankful for the experience we had on June 8th. God knows what each heart needs and to look back on how perfectly "us" our wedding was in June was a pleasantly accepted gift from God this week. I love my husband and the gift that God has given us. Neither of us take lightly the gift of connection and friendship and chemistry He offered us. We cherish what we have been given and work towards seeing the fullness He has to off for us and our life. I might always be quite smiley and chatty and outgoing and Sam might always love his alone time and quietness and not being with groups of people, but that's what makes us "us."
Now off to post production! Sam will be lost in editing and I will be working on my visa, so that I can legally stay in this county longer than 3 months :) Until next time!
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