HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE

Well, tomorrow is both Thankful Thursday and my SIL Mike te Velde's 24th birthday, so it seemed only appropriate to start this week's thankfulness with my gratefulness for this young man.

Mike & Melody's love story is really a pretty interesting one (or I think so anyway, haha) so this seems as good a time as any to share it.  This story was shared by her daddy during the toast at her wedding (much to her COMPLETE horror, haha) but every word of it is true...Melody was starting at a brand new Christian high school as a freshman and did not know a single soul.  Now she has never had a problem making friends, but this was a hard age to find herself not familiar with anything or anyone.  She decided to try out for the volleyball team so this gave her a head start at meeting a lot of girls since tryouts started a full month before school did.  She not only made the team, but very quickly became involved with a group of girls that she is friends with to this day.  But I am getting off track... (imagine that? lol) Anyway, one day about a week before school started I was picking her up from practice and she gets into the car seeming kind of flustered and weird.  Now Mel is not your typical girl in almost any way.  She is NOT a drama girl, is NOT overly emotional, and usually has her feet firmly on the ground.  So this mood was definitely an out of character one for her.  And she says to me, "Oh mom, I just had the WEIRDEST thing happen...."  and I said of course, "WHAT?? and she says, "I just met this boy."  Now again, Mel was not what I would have considered normal for a girl her age in that area either.  She had boys coming around wanting her attention ever since she had been a very little girl.  Now granted in the beginning all they really wanted was for her to play some sport game or another with them as she was always soo athletic, but again I regress.  But she had never really been too interested in boys as "boys" at all.  Now she was of course only 14, but it still had seemed a little weird to me.  So when she said she had just met this boy, I thought to myself, "Oh no, here we go..."  And so I said to her, "And?  Was he especially cute or something?"  and she said, "I don't know, I guess he was kind of cute, but that wasn't what it was."  I of course ask her, "Well, what HAPPENED?"  And she says, " I got introduced to him and I looked at him and when our eyes met I just got the STRANGEST feeling.  It was really weird mom.  Like I just KNEW in my heart I had just met someone who is going to be a VERY significant person in my life.  I just KNOW I am going to know him for the rest of my life."  And of course kind of freaked out now I said, "Well, what do you mean?  Like you might marry him someday or something?"  And she said, "I don't know, but I really think I could, but I know I am going to KNOW him forever."  Needless to say at the time I quickly dismissed this as just a weird thing and not to pay it much attention etc. etc.  However, considering this DID turn out to be the man she married, it was indeed a pretty significant occurence.  Now they didn't get together at that point, in fact it wasn't until late in their junior year of high school that they finally began to actually date, and Melody has never described this event as one where she fell in love at first sight or anything like that.  It was just almost as if somehow her spirit sensed that Mike was to be part of her life forever.  Pretty strange for a 14 year old girl.  I have thought that maybe it was because both her dad and I had begun to pray about the man she would one day marry practically from the time she was just a tiny baby, not knowing of course who on earth that might be.  And maybe when she met him the Lord just stirred her spirit a bit and she experienced that feeling.  But I think it is a very unique story, and telling it still gives me goose bumps sometimes. 

Mike is a strong, fun loving and caring man and the perfect match for Melody in many little ways.  I am so grateful that God brought them together and that he makes my daughter so happy.  He takes good care of her, and I feel she is safe and protected and cherished, and there is not much more a mother can ask for.  He encourages her to visit often and I am VERY grateful for that as well.  For those of you who do not know Mike is a dairy farmer and he and Melody moved 1000 miles away from us right after they married.  In fact, Mike had already moved there a year prior to their wedding so they spent their entire year of engagement 1000 miles a part.  And even though he moved my daughter away from me, I have never felt like I lossed a duaghter, but instead gained yet another wonderful son.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY Mike, and may the Lord bless you and keep you and make His fact to shine upon you now and always...

I had a lot of fun playing with my pictures on the computer the last couple of days.  I am grateful to Genn @ Life in the Hass House for informing me about this site, and also to Kristi @ Rush Hour for helping me tweak my blog more to my liking again.  I am also grateful for the time I spent with my sweet granddaughter Annabel on Sat. and for all the women who took the time to encourage me when I was feeling a little down a couple of days ago.  It blessed me more than you can ever know.  I am now going to share a few more fun pics of Melody and Mike.

These of course are pictures of their wedding day and the rehearsal...

The night they got engaged, New Years eve kiss, and sporting their favorite football teams jerseys, haha

Ok, I really am done playing with this now...Can ya tell I have LOTS of pics of Mike & Melody?

To check out the other grateful bloggers, please click HERE, I promise you, you will bless yourself so much.