The Day I Became A. Sharpe

It was the best wedding I have ever been to. Mainly because of the man involved (I mean, just check out that photo below), but also because of my amazing parents and our incredible friends and family who gave up an entire weekend to celebrate with us. We seriously had so much fun with everyone and feel so humble that people were willing to do that for us! It was like a dream come true for me…everyone I love in one place at the same time! AHH! So great!

The ceremony was incredible—the best I have ever heard. My brother, Drew, married us, which was super special. He did such an amazing job portraying the holiness of marriage and our responsibility to each other in this relationship. I have a copy of it if anyone wants to read it. Seriously. It really was amazing. It was so special to me to have Drew marry us. He is such an awesome brother that I just look up to so much, so to have him in that role of marrying us, challenging us in this step, was incredible.

The reception was a blast too! I just love to dance, and dance is what we did.

We even line danced!! Praise God!

 

We left on a motorcycle and side-car…well, sort of!

Allan revved the engine to take off, everyone was cheering and then…..chhhhuuuuu….the engine died!

That’s okay, we tried again! Allan revved the engine, everyone cheered and……chhhuuuuu…the engine died again!

Third time is a charm though!

Allan revved the engine, everyone cheered and then…..chhhhhhuuuu….but then we started moving!

how?

Three of Allan’s groomsmen started pushing us! How incredible is that? They pushed us up the hill and then one of them said “drop it into gear” so Allan did and off we went! YAY! It was so much fun!

It was such a fun day! We are so thankful to everyone who helped to make it so special by being there and supporting us! We were humbled by the outpour of love, gifts, time, words, encouraging words, and excitement for us. So THANK YOU! We’re married! for life! Crazy! and so exciting! YAY!

Here are some more photos to check out of the day! Thanks so much to Elizabeth of Almond Leaf Studios (who has a really cool motivation to her photography, by the way) and Lauren Jackson of Lauren Jackson Photography for these amazing shots! They are so incredibly talented!

so thankful that Geordan, my primary from the DHP, and his girlfriend got to be there! and the CLB’s!

There are even more here (Almondleaf blog) and here (Lauren Jackson Photography)  if you want to see them!!

and here is a sweet 5 minute video by Ryan Plantz to help us remember the day in motion!!

Allan & Abby Sharpe 8.14.2011

  

p.s. Thanks Mom and Dad for everything! It was awesome!

My friends are the best.

I have some incredible friends. It’s true. I feel so blessed to have the friends in my life that I do.

The wedding weekend made that even more evident to me as these girls that I love so much came from all over to hang out with me and support me as I married my best friend. It was such an awesome, special treat for me to have all of my favorite people in one place. I felt like I was on cloud 9! I know it was a glimpse of heaven!

Kallie and Steph arrived on Wednesday and I was soooooo thankful for their help! I literally (not just figuratively) could not have done it without them. They tied bows, wrote names, wrapped presents, just anything I asked them too! and with such willing hearts and excited spirits. I was so happy to get to spend that time with them! …and show Kallie some of the South at its finest : )

The event really kicked into gear on Friday night! Everyone was there!YAY! It was soooo great! My sisters-in-law and my awesome friends Christine and Annie planned a stellar bachelorette party. I felt so cared for and celebrated that night. Thank you so much to everyone for being there! Sadly, I don’t think we got a group pic!

Saturday was equally as great with an incredible bridesmaid's brunch hosted by two of my best friend’s moms, Katie and Sheri! The food was delicious and the time was sweet! Thank you guys so much!

My beautiful bridesmaids!

 

Saturday night was the rehearsal dinner! It is so cool how the Lord worked things out! There was a wedding at WinMock on Saturday, meaning we should have had to have the rehearsal in a different location, but the wedding was in the morning, which provided the entire afternoon for us to set up and have the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner there! So perfect!

That night was so incredible for me! I loved everything about it. Even more people arrived that night! Lindsey and Rudy from NYC, David from OK, Geordan and Deborah from CO, Travis from CO, Allan’s high school buddies from SC, Guion and Abby from VA, Lisa from New Orleans. (I know I am forgetting some people! I’m sorry!). It was just so humbling that people would sacrifice time and money to be there to celebrate with us. I was so honored and thrilled!

and did I mention it was Tar Heel themed?

We started the night with a time of worship, led by Guion and Allan (Tuesday Night Worship style!) and I loved hearing all my friends singing to Jesus and honoring him. That’s what we wanted the wedding to be—an honor to Christ and focused on him and what he has done, and it was just a great way to start things off.

I was also so thrilled because my primary from the DHP and his girlfriend got to come! I had not seen them until the rehearsal dinner and I almost peed my pants when I did! I was so excited! AND he had ABBY shaved into his head. Talk about an amazing wedding present!

The evening was great. The time of sharing after dinner was so special, and thanks to Steph, I have every speech recorded : ) My brothers and sisters-in-law also planned a super funny newlyweds game for Allan and I to play. It was hilarious! You can watch it here!

It really was such an awesome night. I wish I could really express how thankful I am for all my friends and family who helped to make it so special! Thank you so much!

Most Eventful Summer of my Life (part 2)

(this is a continuation of the last post which you can read here if you like, but a quick summary…Allan and I drove across beautiful lands, saw lots of cool things, then got engaged! Now you’re all caught up!)

 

…and plan we did. In fact, that is all we did. We’ll not really.

We also took a trip to Honduras for a week (!!!) It was the 20th anniversary of Mayatan so we went back to celebrate with our students and friends. It was a blast! I love that place so much! Our students were so much bigger! I couldn’t believe how much older they looked in just one year! Other than that, nothing about Honduras had changed! and I love that! 

 

We also spent a week at the beach with my family and got to hang out with these cuties the whole time. Their cuteness is almost too much for anyone to handle. 

 

Oh, and I started a job at College of Charleston.Thanks to Jesus. It is quite a miracle how it happened. Short story version (Kinda) …I didn’t qualify for in-state tuition because CofC does things weird. I would only be able to qualify for Spring semester. I missed all the deadlines for scholarships and graduate assistantships (where they pay for your school if you work 20 hours), so I was basically SOL in terms of reducing my out-of-state tuition to go to CofC, meaning the different of $18,000 as opposed to potentially free the next year because of in-state, an assistantship, or scholarships.

I was calling the School of Education to see if there was someone I could talk to about deferring my acceptance. I explained the situation and the person on the other line got quiet and said…”well, I think there is actually one assistantship left, but its competitive.” “WHO DO I NEED TO TALK TO?!” I was so excited!

So I immediately called the woman and explained the situation to her voicemail. Then, when I hadn’t heard back from her a few hours later, decided to go by her office. She was so nice but told me that she didn’t know what would happen.

So I waited. About 2 weeks later, I received a call from them asking if I would be interested in starting a job for them during the summer, and that it would guarantee the assistantship in the Fall. Um…YES! And even better, they would pay me for working in the summer! Holler.

Pretty crazy huh? Yea, I thought so too. Thank you Jesus.

 

Whew.  What a whirlwind!

But a really fun whirlwind!

So in the midst of those things….

… we took Save the Date pictures (maybe with such short notice this wasn’t necessary, but hey, that’s okay)…

and we registered….

and planned, planned, planned!

and had amazing showers thanks to some awesome friends and family who really showered us with love and gifts to help us start a home. It was such a blessing and we are so grateful for everything! …

 

and then August was here, meaning it was almost time!

 

More on that in the following posts : )

The Most Eventful Summer of My Life

Well, it’s been an eventful summer to say the least!!

After packing down my car…(I wish you could tell how full it really was!)

and leaving the Dale House, Allan and I journeyed across this beautiful country we call home. Man, it is just beautiful!

Our journey took us through Durango, CO, with a stop by the Sand Dunes. Those things are just incredible. and so random! It’s just a small mountain range of lots and lots of sand, right in front of HUGE 14,000 feet mountains. Where did all that sand come from? I have no idea, but it was still really cool and fun. We got to climb to the (almost) top of this huge pile of sand with bare feet and jeans rolled up. It was so neat.

After our small detour to the Sand Dunes, we settled in Durango, CO for the evening because I wanted to visit one of my old primaries, S, who had been transferred to the jail there.

It was such a good yet hard visit with her. I hate seeing people I know in places like that, but I also love the conversation and emotions that are felt in the visiting room. She cried talking to me about how she had ended up back in jail and cried telling me how lonely and angry she was and how she didn’t want to open herself up to anyone because she was afraid of friendships. It is just not fair. It really isn’t. I will not and never will understand why some people have to grow up in terrible living environments. Her own mother is the one who turned her into the cops and sent her back to jail, but not because she was trying to help her. 

It was hard to leave that jail knowing that I may never see S again. We have written letters this summer and she is still in the jail until at least October. She has hopes of going back to the DHP, which I hope that too. I hope she can be somewhere where she feels cared for and valuable.

After visiting with S, Allan and I started a long drive towards the Grand Canyon, with a stop by the 4 corners, of course!

We then drove back into Colorado to get this following picture because we didn’t get one when we drove out there last summer!  

After our short visit to Four Corners and the Welcome to Colorful Colorado sign, we became slightly obsessed with a game on Allan’s phone called Angry Birds. So, let me paint a picture for you. Our GPS is on Allan’s phone, but we also are using a map. I am driving, Allan is playing Angry Birds, on the phone, therefore not looking at the GPS. We come to a split in the road and I have to make a quick decision to stay straight or go left. I ask Allan. He looks at the map quickly (because he is in the middle of Angry Birds, of course) and says, “Go left!” So I did.

About 3 hours later and after driving through no-mans-land, literally, (we were the only people we saw that entire time), we decided to look at Allan’s GPS on his phone. We were not even on the map. It turns out that the “go left” turn I made took us onto an uncharted Indian Reservation Road. Now, it was a beautiful drive, but we were SO FAR from where we were trying to go! There were even wild horses (not just dead ones!)! It was so crazy!

We drove about another hour and finally arrived to some civilization where we stayed for the night.

The next day we headed to the Grand Canyon. There is a reason it is called Grand. Holy cow.

Then it was off to Flagstaff, AZ. This is one of the crazier towns I have ever visited. It was super neat though. They were having a festival called Hullabaloo and man, was this a weird festival or what! People of all ages were dressed in the strangest costumes..I’m talking babies, toddlers, all the way up to older adults. It was neat to experience though!

Our next stop took us to Amarillo, Texas. Now that is a strange place. You start smelling the cows about 30 miles out of town and the billboards only advertise eating a 72oz steak. We were there on a Sunday night and it took us about an hour to find an open restaurant. It was just crazy. Amarillo does have a pretty good country song by George Strait about it though, so I guess it has something going for it.

Memphis, TN was our next stop. That was a really fun place. While we only got to spent about 12 hours there total, including sleeping time, we did get to go walking in Memphis with our feet 10 feet off of Beale. It was like a dream come true.

Our next stop took us to Augusta, GA where we got to celebrate the life of Allan’s Ging-Ging. While in Flagstaff, we got the call the she had passed away. She was 95 years old and her health had been failing. It’s never easy when someone dies, but I really enjoyed watching Allan and his family deal with this loss in a positive light. It was a beautiful ceremony and honoring to Ging-Ging and the amazing life she lived. It’s crazy to think about 95 years on Earth! Wow!

After Ging-Ging’s funeral, Allan and I headed to Charleston to be with his family.

and that’s where it happened.

We went out on a date. We were hanging out on a dock. We were just talking like normal.

Then I was tired and it was time to go.

Then Allan was asking me to marry him!

I was confused and I didn’t believe him, but it was real.

We were engaged!!

p.s. This is where it happened. Cool, huh?

It was awesome and exciting and unbelievable.

That was June 12, 2011.

We set the wedding date for August 14, 2011, leaving us 2 months to plan…

Daddy’s Girl

I’m going to tell you guys a secret.

One reason I love going to weddings is because I know I am going to get to dance with my dad.

and all little girls like to dance with their daddies, even 24 year olds.

If any of you at all know my father, you know he is quite the character. You never really know what he is going to say, and you never really can believe he said it when he did!!

What you may not know about my dad, however, is that he is one of the most faithful men on earth. He is faithful to my mom. He is faithful to his family. He is faithful to his friends. He is faithful to his work.

If I have learned one thing from my dad, it is how a man should love a woman. He cherishes my mom. He adores her. He wants to go grocery shopping just so he can be with her. He loves her as if they just started dating. He still has that excitement for their relationship and wants my mom to feel cared for. I think this is rare in relationships these days, especially for people their age, and I am so happy that I got to grow up under that example. I know how I should be loved and didn’t settle because of my father’s example.

 

One of my favorite parts of being home with everyone is getting to see how Honey Cate and Kessler just LOVE pops. They say his name and just start laughing. They love him because he loves them so well. He plays all sorts of games with them and tickles them and head bangs with them until they are shaking with laughter. I don’t know how a 60 year old man has that kind of energy, but it is to fun to watch! I think his love for his grandkids is just a small example of the man he is.

 

I realized over the past year that I take my dad SO for granted. Not only was I surrounded by residents who had never met their fathers, seen their fathers, talked to their fathers, or who even knew who their fathers were, I also had 2 co-workers who lost their fathers at young ages. I am so blessed to know my dad, talk to my dad, be loved by my dad, and have my dad around, in my life, part of my life, sharing my life, wanting to be in my life

I heard this cheesy saying once, but I like it…

“Everyone has a father, but not everyone has a daddy.”

I have a daddy…a great daddy…for whom I am very thankful.

I love you daddy. Happy father’s day.

It’s a rap

So…I left the Dale House…after a week of crying.

It was really tough for me to leave. It is still hard for me to realize that I am not going back there. This is not just a vacation. I already miss the community so much. I lie awake at night thinking about it. I am constantly subtracting 2 hours now to see what they are doing at the DHP instead of adding 2 hours to see what the East Coast is doing. It’s a weird switch.

One great thing about leaving the DHP is that they are SO good at goodbyes! They want to make sure each person feels appreciated, valued, and like they are leaving well. I really am thankful for that because it gave me sufficient time to say goodbye to people I love so much.

My goodbye process started about 2 weeks before I actually left  

Here’s the way it started…

The last weekend my team was off, we took a weekend get-a-way to a beautiful cabin in Breckenridge. We just wanted some time to be together and away from everything else. It was so much fun just sitting around, eating, playing the same “guess who is written on the piece of paper stuck to your head” game, relaxing, and really just doing nothing together. I feel so blessed to have gotten to work with these people. It’s just such a gift. I was really happy that Allan got to be there as well because I wanted him to get to know people I love so much and I wanted to people I love so much to get to know the man I love so much.

Sunday morning was an extra-special time together. We each went around and shared about “our next step” and then each of us prayed for one another. Man, did the tears flow then! It was incredible the spirit of love that was in the room.

(side note: while we were in Breck, we found out the DHP office, mainly our secretary and George, had been robbed at gun point. The DHP has been robbed before but never an armed robbery. They took about $7,000 and the guy was caught later on that day. The guy was an accomplice to an old resident who knew George kept money in the office. Very sad, but we were thankful everyone was okay.)

After that incredible weekend, Stephanie and I spoke at my last Sunday night family night. Of course, I cried, but it was just a really special time to be with the kids and get to tell them something that I believe with all my heart: that they are valuable, worth it, and loved. I just so badly wish I could make all of them believe it!!

After Steph and I spoke, something crazy happened: a resident named D raised his hand from the back and asked if he could say something. This never happens. It’s normally we pray, then the kids disperse immediately. But not tonight. He came to the front behind us and proceeded to thank all the staff for what they do. He was grateful that we stick with them through the thick and the thin. He as thankful for the times we make him mad because we are just trying to make his life better.

I was blown away. What a gift from Jesus that was. If nothing else great would have happened all year, that one little speech from D would have made everything, every fight, every annoyance, every frustration, worth it.

Wednesday night family night was set aside for the kids to get to say goodbye to us. I think this is HUGELY important for these kids because goodbyes are things they are used to, but things they hate. They are used to people walking out of their lives for no reason or explanation. I’m really grateful the DHP recognizes this and wants to help make a smooth transition and also teach the kids how to say goodbye well.

All of the “leaving” training staff set up front while the kids went around and shared memories of each of us. It was so sweet to hear the kids talk and hear what they remembered about the year. One girl, B, who seemingly hated the DHP the entire time she was here, cried her eyes out as she talked about how Stephanie had cared for unlike anyone in her life. It was awesome.

After the “talking” part, we had a small celebration with sparkling cider and cookies! I also used the time for some last minute photos! Here are all the female staff with Kevin and George, our fearless leaders!

Thursday morning was the goodbye time with all of the staff! Another time to cry! YAY!  

We all showed up sporting our George t-shirts as a surprise! It was great!

This was also a really special time together. Memories were shared, I cried, and then they prayed for each of us. We also each got the coveted Dale House Project coffee mug and bookmark!! I was so excited : )

 

Whew…that’s a lot of goodbyes! and that wasn’t even all for me! I worked the last weekend and had to say final goodbyes to all the kids and Kallie, Mike, Annie, Andy, and Travy as they all left for camp on Sunday. That’s when reality really hit.

I spent the next two days packing up my room before Allan and I headed out on Tuesday.

Lots more tears were shed that day as I said final goodbyes to the people who were still around and drove away from that place I grew to love so much.

I can’t describe it exactly, but, man, it’s going to be an adjustment.

so that’s the end of my journey in CO.

but it’s the beginning of my journey in SC. It’s the beginning of taking what I learned from the DHP and living it out. It’s the beginning of answering the call in a different location with different people.

I’m excited and nervous all in one.