WE'RE OFFICIALLY MARRIED . . .

Oh, don't get the wrong idea. We analogized the installation of PEK at NHF with a marriage. Actually, we analogized it with the installation of a furnace in a home: the furnace warms the home and makes it habitable; without the furnace, the home will break and no one can live there for there will be no heat or hot water. There was no mention made of the length of the warranty or the return policy, but I don't think we'll be needing either.

My brain is overloaded with today, which started with a bizarrely unnecessary late start out of the house and continued with: a rewarding and heart-warming young women's Bible study; an intense service full of emotion, thanksgiving, and family and friends supporting NHF and PEK at the start of this new season; the "my worlds are shrinking and crashing into each other" realization that my parents and PEK's parents went to the same church almost thirty years ago (before I was even a twinkle in my parents' eyes!); a new, exciting and concrete vision of the future of the praise team; and a loud but lazy evening at Camp Capio, laying like roasted broccoli in front of their awesome fireplace.

Today was a day of commitments, promises, new beginnings, affirmations of friendship, dedications to growth, expressions of honesty and grace, reiterations of love, and immersions in the Beloved and my beloved. My simple and ineffective words could not accurately or justly describe today.

But I go to bed with a full, bursting heart. I know I am loved. I know that I love others. I know that I have the ability to make new friends and keep old ones. I know that I have passion and that I am shown passion. I know that there are those who commit to me through thick and thin, and despite my super-speed brain and questioning heart. I know that NHF has a future and that I have a new friend. I know that NHF is supported by love we didn't even know existed. I wonder how I can sleep at all, with all this knowledge crowding my head and heart ...