Making mom proud...

So, my mother has had two dreams for her children since she gave us birth two decades ago. One, that we would learn to play piano, and two, that we would learn to sew. After hating the practicing that went into piano all growing up, I had a change of heart a few years ago and decided to teach myself some piano. I fell in love with the instrument, bringing my mom immense joy, but unfortunately I still had little desire to sew. Well, I'm proud to announce that that day has finally arrived...I sewed something, mom! Mom and Dad got Isaac and me a sewing machine for our wedding and we broke it out last night and figured out how it worked, how to thread the bobbin, how to put everything together. And then we sewed pillows! An easy start for the novice seamstress, I know, but you have to start somewhere. And you know what? They didn't turn out too badly! Isaac put his handyness to use last night, too, after we figured out the sewing machine, and made us a window box for a couple of our plants. I tell you what, that man can build anything. I'm a lucky girl. Also, here are a couple more pictures from couples' night earlier this week with our married friends. Oh, the cute couples...now that we're officially a real couple!!
So, married life. It's been three weeks now, and I still wake up every morning amazed that Isaac chose me. It's such a different experience getting to share so much of your lives together...you're together when you wake up, together when you're working on projects, together as you cook dinner, together in the evenings (at least the ones we're home for), together as you go to sleep at night. For me, it's extremely calming to have Isaac be such a constant presence in my life. I love it. I love him. It's wonderful to be married. But you know one thing I've learned in the past three weeks? I, unfortunately, didn't get any less selfish once I got married. Which is a bummer, because I think some small part of me was hoping that once we got married, I would immediately become this perfectly loving wife who always put her husband first and became completely selfless. All the wise counselors in my life had been telling me up to this point that marriage actually brightly highlights one's selfishness instead of reducing it, and I would always smile a confirmation of agreement, but it isn't until now that I feel like I'm getting a clearer picture of what they were actually saying. And so we learn. We love, we fall, we disagree, we talk things out, we take baby steps toward loving each other the way that God loves us. My incredible blessing is that Isaac is a man of grace and patience and he continues to love me with his deep, committed love through my selfish times. And you know what is really fascinating? The ups and downs, the laughter, the love, the selfishness, the grace, the frustrations, the forgiveness, the memories, all of these are what make up marriage. They're what make up life. And the intimacy that comes from walking through this life together is so, so worth being faced with my own selfishness - as long as I choose to take that selfishness and work to change it into God-honoring love for my husband. And so, we approach the end our third week together with excitement and anticipation of how our love will grow and mature in the next fifty years.