Rich, Heather and Alana’s Blog

Rich and I just returned from an awesome evening out with one of our favorite couples in the world. Kenny and Christi are true friends and we love them. Whenever we spend time with them, we are reminded of just how much God has blessed us.

Our lives have intersected in several ways, and we are so thankful for each avenue that God has opened for us to know them. I knew who Kenny and Christi were while living in Fort Lauderdale, but it’s easy to know “of someone” and not to know them well when you are part of a huge church like Calvary Fort Lauderdale. When the Engels decided to move to Chattanooga, I was excited for the opportunity to get to know them better.

Once in Chattanooga, Kenny began the youth program at our (still relatively new) church of Calvary Chattanooga, and Rich and I began serving as volunteer youth leaders. We were only dating at the time, and proceeded to get engaged while working under Kenny with the students. When it came time to decide who we wanted to marry us, we both felt overwhelmingly that it would be the most precious possible day if Kenny would officiate.

And officiate he did. He blew us away with the most personal, intimate, meaningful wedding ceremony we could have imagined. He blessed us that day, and he and Christi have continued to bless us each day we’ve spent with them since.

As newlyweds, we decided to get involved with a home group at church, knowing we wanted the true fellowship and growth that happens in that environment. We decided to drive the 45 minutes to Signal Mountain to join the Engels home group on Monday nights. It’s been an incredibly fulfilling, wonderful period of time with them as our small group leaders. Worth far more than the long Monday night drive time.

When we are with Kenny and Christi, we are with friends who genuinely care about us. We can talk about anything. We laugh hysterically. We sometimes cry. We grow and change and become more of who God made us to be. We are encouraged and affirmed. We worship. We chat and reminisce. We tell funny stories and make fun of ourselves. We learn about what godly parenting looks like and store their insights away for future reference! And we see a tangible example of what it looks like to walk through a trial with grace and strength.

It is God alone who is the author of this kind of friendship. We are in true community and are so in awe of all that God has done!

Here we are with Kenny and Christi after a delicious evening at Tony’s Pasta and then on to Rembrandt’s for coffee and dessert. Thanks for an incredible time, Kenny and Christi. We love you guys, and are blessed beyond words to know you!

Um…ya. What were we saying about that laughing hysterically part?  Kenny is definitely smooching Rich

Recently Rich and I blogged about our experience modeling for OSP South, a photography conference that took place here in Chattanooga. One of the wonderful people that we met was Carole Foret, an incredibly talented painter and photographer from Athens, Alabama. Carole has launched a beautiful new website featuring her work, and we wanted everyone to check it out! Click here to enjoy her painting and photography, and she features some of her photos of Rich and I if you enter her main site and watch while the photos and paintings cycle through! She was such a pleasure to meet and we so admire her work!

We had previously posted some of the photos that were taken of us that weekend, and we have some more favorites to share! These images were taken by Charles Bordner of Imagine That Photography, based out of Greenville and Charleston, South Carolina!

We love Charles’s work and the fun interaction he got between us!

Thanks again, Charles, and we look forward to seeing you again soon!

Some of you may remember Rich’s amazing blog post to me on our 2 year anniversary. This post is not my feeble attempt to one-up him, but rather it is my desire to scream to the world how much I love this man that God has given to me!

We don’t do much in the way of gift-giving on Valentines Day (I far prefer to be surprised by a romantic date or getaway on some random day), but I definitely get to thinking about this love of mine during this time of the year. So here are a few of my ponderings…counting my blessings, if you will. My love-induced musings…

My husband is one of the wisest men I know. I love being the one who knows him best! It’s like I am perpetually let in on the secret of who he is and I’m always impressed by what I discover.

He is fun-loving, people-oriented, kind, gracious, and engaging. He is mature and responsible. He takes care of me and I always feel protected. He understands what it means to be completely faithful and reject any behavior that would make me feel threatened or unloved. He lets me know that I am truly cherished and appreciated. He thanks me on a regular basis for who I am and for being easy to get along with. He is so appreciative of the little things that I do, which makes it easy and enjoyable for me to be his wife.

I love and respect him not because he demands my love or respect, but because he loves me well and is confident in our love. He is a servant leader. He is patient. He makes me laugh uncontrollably.

He brags on me in public. It’s embarrasing.

He knows my flaws and my shortcomings, but I guess he talks to God about those things because he sure doesn’t make a habit of pointing them out to me. He is affirming and so far from being critical and condescending. He doesn’t dwell on (or remind me of) my weaknesses. He’s up evey morning spending time with God before I’m awake.

He goes out of his way to make me dinner if I am sick (the man can cook!), give me a massage if I have a headache, or ask if there is anything he can do for me. In fact, that question is a regular fixture in his daily vocabulary.

The only explanation I have for this enormous blessing is that my parents prayed for a godly future spouse for me ever since I was young. This man is truly proof that God answers and honors those prayers!

Sweetie, today I want you to know how much I love you, appreciate you, and respect you! You are my hero. I want to be by your side for every Valentines Day for the rest of my life. I love you.

Photo of my honey by our good friend, the incredible Matt Dunmore!

You have to take pictures when it snows in Chattanooga, because it doesn’t happen too often! Such was the case last Thursday, when we awoke to a clean, untouched layer of white all over the city. I got dressed quickly, as if the snow was going to vanish within minutes. Rich and I headed out front to enjoy the beauty, but the only deterrent was that it began to sleet. Yes, our snow playtime was very short-lived, and back inside we came to get warm and dry off. I was very excited that the snow stuck all day, and although I was hoping for some accumulation, I was thrilled with the one day of white.

I had quite a different experience in my four years at Covenant College up on Lookout Mountain. Although the mountain sits in Chattanooga, with it’s thousand foot elevation it is consistently cooler and snows more often than it does down here in the valley. I miss that about my college days. And you can be sure I didn’t experience any snow days living in South Florida before moving to Tennessee!

Ah, the glory of a good snow day…

This is one of the two lantern lampposts in our front yard, and I think they are so beautiful, especially when snow-topped. I thought they were very Narnia-esque…